8 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and often dangerous to cross, wind about through the marshy flats. 

 Across the level pampa inland a few slight elevations of a meter 

 or so are grown with groves of native trees that form veritable 

 islands in an apparently limitless level plain, otherwise broken 

 only by widely scattered estancias with their plantations of eucalypts. 

 While at Lavalle it was my good fortune to spend a number of 

 days at the Estancia Los Yngleses, the home of the late Ernest 

 Gibson, an ornithologist well known for his careful and painstak- 

 ing observations on the birds of this region. The Gibson estate is 

 located about 6 kilometers south of Lavalle, and is surrounded by 

 well-established groves of eucalyptus in addition to the lower tala, 

 ombu, and coronillo trees native to the pampa. For work quarters 

 it was my privilege to occupy a little building erected by Mr. Gibson 

 for a study and museum. From this hospitable point I crossed on 

 November 3 to the coast where camp was made in a little hut, 25 

 kilometers south of the northern point of Cabo San Antonio, on 

 property belonging to the Estancia Tuyu. Here a broad sand 

 beach extended north and south as far as the eye could reach, bor- 

 dered inland by a stretch of shifting sand dunes 400 meters wide, 

 with a marshy swale intervening between the dunes and the more 

 elevated grazing lands beyond. Like most of this coastal region, 

 this tract was visited only by occasional herdsmen or by parties from 

 one of the estancias. Shore birds were encountered in migration 

 from the north, with a great flight of long-tailed and parasitic 

 jaegers, while large bands of pintails and other ducks came up from 

 the south. A tremendous storm that endured for two days interfered 

 somewhat with field work. On November 8 I returned to Los 

 Yngleses, and November 11 continued to Lavalle for a few more 

 days at the mouth of the Ajo and the vicinity. On November 16 I 

 crossed by stage coach to Santo Domingo on the railroad, a distance 

 of 18 leagues across the green plains, with only an occasional grove 

 or an estancia to break the line of the horizon. For the first half 

 of the distance marshes were frequent, but beyond the land became 

 higher. The great storm of 10 days before was reported to have 

 killed 300,000 sheep in the Province of Buenos Aires alone, and in 

 many places we passed piles of their bodies, (Pis. 6 and 7,) 



On November 17 I returned by rail to Buenos Aires, and on the 

 20th left again for the south. On the following morning the train 

 passed through the barren hills of the Sierra de la Ventana and 

 arrived in Bahia Blanca, where the route turned west. After leav- 

 ing the level flats near the sea the railroad traversed an arid section 

 slightly elevated and rolling, covered with low scrub and occasional 

 tracts of scanty grass. At Rio Colorado descent was made to the. 

 stream valley of that name, and continued along it to Fortin Uno^ 

 where we crossed another elevated region to the valley of the Rio 



