374 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



was not averse to penetrating inland among the scanty bushes that 

 clothed the slopes of arid gravel hills. Through the pampas coun- 

 try it was found amid clumps of rough bunch grass that covered 

 extensive rolling pastures. 



The birds are inhabitants of the ground, where they walk about 

 like meadowlarks {Stiimella) amid the grass. When at all alarmed 

 they usually presented their obscurely marked backs to the observer, 

 and when one chanced to turn about the flash of brilliant red on the 

 breast came as a pleasant surprise from a bird apparently plain in 

 coloration. Their flight is straight and direct, and is accompanied 

 by a flash of white from beneath the wing. Their call note was a 

 low pimp^ while from the ground or some low perch males sang 

 a wheezy song. 



TRUPIALIS DEFILIPPII (Bonaparte) 



Sturnus defiUppU Bonapakte, Consp. Gen. Av., vol. 1, 1850, p. 429. (Brazil, 

 Paraguay, and Montevideo.) 



Cultivation and grazing appears to be restricting the numbers of 

 this species and of T. m. militaris in the Province of Buenos Aires. 

 Personally I found T. de-filippii only at Carhue, from December 15 

 to 18, 1920, where four males and two females, with two additional 

 birds as skeletons, were collected, and at Guamini, Buenos Aires, on 

 March 3, 1921. Between Empalme Lobos and Bolivar on the same 

 date flocks of 100 or more were recorded from a train on the date 

 last mentioned. 



While Ti'npialis m. militm'is is suggestive of the meadowlarks 

 {Stumella) the present bird, in the form of a study skin so closely 

 similar in appearance, is more like an Agelaius in actions. In fact 

 defilippii resembles Leistes in habits more than it does T. mMitaris. 



T. defXippil seems abundant now in the area between Saavedra 

 and the foothills of the Sierra de la Ventana. Near Carhue the birds 

 were scattered over rolling hills and prairies south of town, in a 

 region grown with clumps of a rough, harsh bunch grass. The birds 

 were gregarious and were found in flocks that fed in company. In 

 collecting specimens on one occasion I witnessed a curious example 

 of the value of sentinels in flock feeding. A flock of these birds was 

 feeding on the ground among open bunch grass, while one of their 

 number, a fine plumaged male, remained on guard on the top of a 

 clump of grass. I made several attempts to approach the flock, but 

 each time the alarm was given by the sentinel and all rose and flew 

 before I was within range. Finally I killed the sentinel by a very 

 long shot, and though the others heard the discharge of the gun, 

 as no alarm was given, they remained motionless in the grass with 

 heads erect, where they could look about. I approached nearer 

 then and killed another with a short-range shell. Two now arose 



