413 Mr. E. Gibson on the Ornithology of 



manner of a Tumbler Pigeon, going rapidly head over heels 

 in the most eccentric and amusing fashion. Also it will 

 raise any small bird time after time, should the latter endea- 

 vour to conceal itself in the grass, preferring, as it would 

 seem, to strike it on the wing. Small birds form its prin- 

 cipal prey, to which probably may be added Tuco-tucos {Cte- 

 nomys brasiliensis) &c. The vociferous little green Perroquet 

 Bolborhynchus monachus frequently mobs this speciss if it 

 ventures near the woods — an experience shared by most of 

 our Raptores. 



Notwithstanding its comparative abundance, and that all 

 the year round, I know nothing of its breeding-habits ; only 

 like Mr. Durnford, I have been assured that it nests on the 

 ground among the long grass. 



5. Hypotriorchis femoralis (Temm.). 



One male, shot in the woods at the head station, is the 

 only specimen of the species which has yet come under my 

 notice during the last six years. 



6. TiNNUNCULUs sPARVERius (Linn.). 



Not altogether uncommon, but sufficiently so to make my 

 information regarding it very meagre. With one exception, 

 my specimens were all obtained in July and August (mid- 

 winter); and my few notes bear these dates also. The excep- 

 tion was a female, and was killed at the end of March 

 (autumn). Possibly, then, it does not breed with us, but 

 merely comes north in the winter. Mr. Durnford found it 

 nesting in Tosca cliffs in the Patagonian valley of Chupat 

 during the month of November ; and Mr. Hudson observed 

 it in the same country, on the Rio Negro, also during the 

 summer months (as I infer from his paper). Consequently 

 I am not altogether without grounds for the above hypothesis. 



On the wing, as the former naturalist has already recorded, 

 it is very swift. My own notes liken its flight to that of a 

 Pigeon, especially when flying from tree to tree ; but it has 

 also a habit of hovering for a moment over any object, and 

 then darting away — the first like a Kestrel, the latter swiftly 

 as any Swallow. 



