12 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



where, after the usual customs examination, I secured quarters until 

 there was a train for Buenos Aires, where I arrived again on Feb- 

 ruary 24. On February 25 the day was spent in examining collec- 

 tions in the museum at La Plata, in company with Dr. Carlos Bruch. 



March 2 I went by rail to Guamini, in the southwestern part of 

 the Province of Buenos Aires, not far from Carhue, where observa- 

 tions had been made in December. Broad, open pampa (pi. 8), 

 slightly rolling, extended for an apparently limitless distance, with 

 occasional slight depressions occupied by lakes of more or less alka- 

 line water that served to support fish or water stock. Guamini was 

 built on the shore of the Laguna del Monte that had risen recently 

 and flooded some of the lower streets of the town. Broad barrens, 

 covered in part with alkaline efflorescences, stretched on either hand^ 

 with salicornia, chenopodaceous plants, and other salt loving herbs 

 in abundance. Fall was at hand, the pampan vegetation had turned 

 brown, the sky was often overcast and the wind cold. Colder 

 weather in Patagonia was driving shore birds north, and the lake 

 shore furnished attractive resting places where they flocked by 

 hundreds. 



On March 8 I left for Buenos Aires, where I arrived on the fol- 

 lowing morning. Here I Avas fortunate in meeting James L. Peters, 

 who was traveling for the Museum of Comparative Zoology at 

 Harvard University. As we were both bound for western Argen- 

 tina we joined forces and traveled in company for a period. After 

 a farewell visit to Doctor Dabbene at the Museo Nacional, we left 

 by train on March 11, and on the following evening arrived in 

 Mendoza, Province of Mendoza (altitude approximately 750 meters). 

 On March 13 we collected across rough arid flats cut by many dry 

 washes west of the city. Thorny brush of a desert type was scat- 

 tered over sandy, gravelly slopes with abrupt hills in the back- 

 ground. In lower sections broad areas produced abundant crops 

 through irrigation. On advice of Dr. Carlos S. Reed, then in 

 charge of the Educational Museum in Mendoza, we proceeded on 

 March 15 to Potrerillos, Mendoza, on the line of the transandean 

 railroad, within the Andean foothills above the junction of the Eio 

 Blanco and Rio Mendoza. The country Avas rough and broken, with 

 bowlder-strewn winding valleys leading between steeply sloping 

 hills; inland rose the snow-covered ridges of the Sierra del Plata. 

 The altitude at the railroad was given as 1,370 meters. Our collect- 

 ing was carried on mainly at about 1,500 meters. The region was 

 only slightly less arid than the open plains below and supported the 

 usual desert types of cacti, thorny shrubs, and bunch grass. The 

 nights were cold and sharp and westerly winds from the higher 

 slopes carried the chill of snow. On March 19 we rode inland to 



