MARTINETA 227 
the dry, sterile plains of that region, preferring places 
abounding in thin scrub. In disposition it is extremely 
shy, and when approached springs up at a distance 
ahead and runs away with the greatest speed and 
apparently much terrified. Sometimes when thus 
running it utters short whistled notes like the allied 
species. It rises more readily and with less noise 
than the pampas bird, and has a much higher flight. 
It has one call-note, heard only in the love-season— 
a succession of short whistling notes, like those of 
the NV. maculosa, but without the rapidly uttered con- 
clusion. 
The nest is made under a small scrubby bush, and 
contains from five to seven eggs, in form and colour 
like those of N. maculosa, except that the_reddish- 
purple tint is paler. 
MARTINETA 
Calodromas elegans 
Above densely banded and spotted with black and pale fulvous ; 
head cinereous, with black striations; a long recurved vertical crest 
of black feathers, partly edged with cinereous; two lateral stripes of 
the head above and beneath the eye and throat cinnamon white ; 
beneath pale cinnamon, breast with numerous black cross-bars and 
black shaft-spots; belly, flanks, and under tail-coverts with broad 
black cross bands; wings ashy black, with numerous cross bands 
of pale cinnamon; bill blackish, feet bluish-grey; length 14.5, wing 
8.3 inches. Female similar, 
Tus fine game-bird in its size and mottled plumage 
resembles the Rhynchotus rufescens of the pampas, 
which it represents in the Patagonian region south 
