36 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



concerts were ever heard; the bird, as he had witnessed, 

 was quite rare, and so it had always been. 



This vexed him, and he resolved to have it out with 

 me on his return to England. The castigation was to'' 

 be made in public and the Naturalist in La Plata to 

 be for ever discredited. Luckily for my poor little repu- 

 tation he had made further enquiries before quitting 

 the country and discovered that I had told the simple 

 truth, that the screamer, albeit a very big bird, had been 

 excessively abundant and in dry seasons often formed 

 the stupendous gatherings I had described; finally, that 

 in about a quarter of a century it had been practically 

 extirpated on the pampas. All this I had from his own 

 lips on his return, an almost incredible example of can- 

 dour, for it is well known that we naturalists, like the 

 early Christians, love one another. 



Alas! the crested screamer is but one of many noble 

 species which have met with the same fate in southern 

 Argentina. The rhea, the great blue heron, the 

 flamingo, the wood ibis, and the great blue ibis of the 

 marshes and the great black-faced ibis of the uplands 

 with its resounding cries as of giants beating with 

 hammers on iron plates; and storks and upland geese, 

 and the white and the black-necked swans. Then fol- 

 low others of lesser size — the snowy egrets and other 

 herons and bitterns, glossy ibis, rails and courlans, big 

 and little, the beautiful golden-winged jagana, curlews 

 and godwits, and waders and ducks too numerous to 

 mention. They were in myriads on the rivers and 

 marshes, they were seen in clouds in the air, like star- 



