A SEARCH FOR SCYTALOPUS 



159 



usually interesting material, but a 

 o-reat deal of information about tbeir 

 life histories as well. 



Using Eosario de Lerma as a base, 

 we made a number of excursions into 

 regions several hundreds of miles dis- 

 tant, in the hope of finding the dense 

 forest which we thought would shelter 

 the bird we were seeking. One of these 

 was to the cliaco, far to the east. In 

 this place we found rheas, which are 

 still fairly abundant in spite of the 

 persecution to which they have been 

 subjected. These birds were nesting, 

 and the eggs were commonly sold in 

 the village markets at about twenty 

 cents apiece. As the contents of each 

 Qgg, is equal to that of a dozen hen's 

 eggs, and the quality is fully as good, 

 this price is not exorbitant. As a rule 

 a single nest contains eight to fifteen 

 eggs, but we heard of one instance in 

 which twenty-four were found, and 

 this number is about as many as one 

 man can carry. 



The city of Tucuman was our next 

 objective. Our first care was to secure 

 a collecting permit as the hunting sea- 

 son had not yet opened. Each province, 

 it seems, has its own game laws so that 

 it was necessary to secure a separate 

 permit every time we moved from one 

 locality to another. In this we had so 

 far been successful, but in Tucuman 

 we faced an extraordinary situation, 

 and it seemed impossible to secure the 

 permits. As a last resort I appealed to 

 the British consul (there being no 

 American consul in Tucuman), who 

 very kindly spent a great many hours 

 in attempts to explain our mission, but 

 all his efforts were in vain. •■Our quest 

 seemed hopeless until one day a copy of 

 one of the large daily newspapers of 

 Buenos Aires arrived, and in this I 

 found a lengthy account of how repre- 

 sentatives of Latin-American countries 



who were attending the scientific con- 

 gress in Washington had been received 

 and entertained at the American ]\Iu- 

 seum of N"atural History during their 

 visit to New York. Armed with this 

 account I again called at the palace. 

 Ordinarily I should not have thought 

 of such a move, as there are many rea- 

 sons why it is not commendable; but 

 the situation was desperate. Suffice it 

 to say that this visit was the last, for 

 when I left tlie Iniilding the permit 

 was in my pocket. 



A range of comparatively low moun- 

 tains rises directly west of Tucuman. 

 This we found to be covered with a 

 growth of tall, dense forest, so we lost 

 no time in going there. We left the 

 city by rail and proceeded southwest- 

 ward to a little station called San 

 Pablo, a short distance away. This is 

 in the heart of the sugar region, and 

 vast fields of cane stretch on either side 

 of the railway. Here and there the 

 tall, brick chimneys of a refinery rise 

 above the waving green of the fields, 

 and wide, deep canals divide the culti- 

 vated areas into sections and supply 

 water for irrigation. 



A good cart road leads from San 

 Pablo, up the side of the mountains to 

 the very summit, four thousand six 

 hundred feet high, where the little 

 town of Villa Nougues is situated. The 

 settlement is a favorite resort of the 

 wealthier class of people who come up 

 from Tucuman to spend the summer 

 months in pleasant chateaux, thereby 

 avoiding the great heat of the lower 

 country. The view from the top of the 

 range is superb ; the country to the 

 east is perfectly level, and is laid out in 

 symmetrical fields of cane as far as the 

 eye can see. A small, muddy river, 

 threading its way through the ocean of' 

 green, divides it into two sections and 

 vanishes into the horizon in a haze of 



