BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 195 



€ucalypts Avhere companies of screeching birds clambered about over 

 them, or, as this was spring, added new material to the mass already 

 accumulated. The nests were rough and unfinished externally, and 

 as the larger ones were 2 meters in diameter often contained material 

 sufficient to fill a wagon. The majority were placed 14 or 18 meters 

 from the ground. After a tremendous storm in early November, I 

 found that several of the nests had been dashed to the ground. The 

 birds frequented trees, save when once or twice a day they flew out 

 to drink at some channel in the marshes. On November 3 and 6 

 small bands were noted in a clump of isolated trees near the coast 

 below Cape San Antonio, where the}'^ had apparently settled recently, 

 and on November 16 between Lavalle and Santa Domingo a flock 

 was seen in the iron work of a high wagon bridge. 



In southern Uruguay the monk parrakeet was common wherever 

 trees offered shelter. A few were seen near La Paloma January 23, 

 and at San "N^icente from January 25 to February 2 the species was 

 common in extensive palm groves in the lowlands. In the low for- 

 ested tract that bordered the Rio Cebollati below Lazcano from Feb- 

 ruary 5 to 9 monk parrakeets frequented open pastures studded with 

 trees, and were also found in the dense forest. 



Where scattered palm trees grew in small openings nearly every 

 palm held one of the large stick nests of this bird, usually with a 

 pair of parrakeets clambering over it. At this season the parrots 

 fed on thistle heads in rank groAvths of these weeds that here have 

 ruined thousands of acres of pasture. The thistle heads Avere nipped 

 off from the stem and held in one foot while the bird extracted the 

 seeds with the aid of bill and tongue. It was reported that monk 

 parrakeets damaged maize extensively when the grain was ripening. 

 Two were shot at Lazcano on February 8. 



Small flocks of monk parrakeets that were noted at Victorica, 

 Pampa, on December 24, 27, and 29, were probably M. m. calita, as 

 a specimen in the National Museum taken at the Estancia El Bosque 

 near Nueva Galia, San Luis, a short distance farther north, belongs 

 to that form. Since none were shot at Victorica the identity of the 

 bird from that region is not wholly certain. 



MYIOPSITTA MONACHUS COTORRA (Vieillot) 



Psittacus cotorra Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. 25, ISIT, p. 362. 

 (Paraguay.) 



Psittacus coton^a of Vieillot based on Azara is a composite of ob- 

 servations by Azara on the monk parrakeet in Buenos Aires and in 

 Paraguay. Since the bulk of the notes refer to Paraguay, and the 

 measurement of the bill, given as 8 lines, indicates the small northern 

 bird, the type locality is here fixed as Paraguay. The name is thus 

 available for the small northern subspecies. 



