BIRD LIFE IN PATAGONIA. 83 



flamingoes, Phoenicoptems chiknsis, busily engaged with their long bills 

 in extracting from the mud at the bottom the worms, crustaceans, molluscs, 

 and such other animal life as would serve for their sustenance. During 

 this exceptionally open winter we observed that occasional examples of 

 these birds were to be seen throughout the year, even at this high latitude. 

 Although quite common throughout the most of the year, about the lakes 

 all over the Patagonian plains, I was never able to discover a nesting 

 place of these birds, though constantly on the lookout for such. I was 

 told, however, that there is a lake in northern Tierra del Fuego where in 

 summer they congregate and breed in great numbers. The beautiful 

 color of these birds is well known. It is quite variable, the red running 

 through every shade from a light delicate pink in the younger females to 

 a deep flaming crimson with the fully adult male. The black of the 

 wings is intensified or diminished in the different individuals, according 

 as the red of the other parts of the body is of a deeper or lighter hue. 



Among the smaller birds beside the song sparrow, Zonotrichia 

 canicapilla, black-throated sparrow, Phrygilus melanodents, the little 

 brown wren, Troglodytes iiornensis, and a few others mentioned above, 

 there may be mentioned as of more than ordinary interest Upucerthia 

 dumetoria, a small brown bird with long curved bill. This bird is some- 

 what smaller than our meadow lark and has a peculiar and amusing habit 

 of rising suddenly to a height of from fifty to sixty feet above the surface 

 of the ground. Here for a few moments it will sustain itself in practi- 

 cally the same position by a rapid vertical movement of the wings, then, 

 suddenly stopping, dart swiftly and almost directly downward until 

 within a foot or two of the earth, when it will again as suddenly change 

 its course and, gliding upward at an incredible speed, resume its former 

 position in mid-air, repeating the same manoeuvres over and over again 

 for hours at a time, breaking forth all the while in a not unpleasing song, 

 the intense volume of which is only decreased during the short interval 

 of its rapid descent and ascent. The entire aspect of the bird while thus 

 engaged is such as would indicate the keenest enjoyment. This same 

 bird has the further peculiarity of building its nest in a shallow burrow. 

 I frequently saw it nesting and observed that the nests were as a rule 

 placed on a hillside, or near the top in the side of a small draw. The 

 site for the nest would be chosen at the base of a little escarpment only 

 four or five inches in height and most usually directly beneath a tuft of 



