Il6 NATURE STUDY. 



Some Birds of Argentina. 



Among Argentina's greatest treasures are her birds, which 

 abound there in great number and variety. One peculiarity of the 

 birds is their gaudy plumage, brightest scarlet, orange, olive, yel- 

 low, pink and green — painted perhaps by the southern sun. 



In color they are beautiful and in song wonderful. Let us go to 

 the woods bordering the river and see how many we can find. 

 Yonder bird is called the " arm of fire " on account of his bright 

 color. He appears to take great pride in showing himself. There 

 is the cardinal with the scarlet crest, white breast and dove colored 

 back, also the yellow cardinal with yellow body and black crest. 

 It is so named because its crest resembles the cardinal's hat. That 

 beautiful pink line that you see in the distant sky is a flock of pink 

 flamingoes. They are nearing us. Now they alight upon the sand 

 on the margin of the river. How pretty they are ! Listen to that 

 exquisite song. That is the "Bugero," a large black bird with 

 white beak. From the grassy marsh comes the discordant cry of 

 the heron, and the green parrots are chattering in the trees over 

 our heads. They think their scolding will frighten us away. See 

 that lovely golden wren creeping up the tree, hunting spiders. He 

 does not seem a particle afraid of us. Hear that sweet-voiced 

 robin. They are much finer singers than the robins of our coun- 

 try. Here we find a dove's carelessly-made nest, with two white 

 eggs lying on the ground. This dove is very small, not much 

 larger than a canary. That modest little gray bird is the bulbul 

 or nightingale, which keeps his sweet song for the night. 



There is a tree that appears to be covered with balls of cotton, 

 but instead of cotton it is a flock of magpies sunning themselves. 

 They drop their wings and fluff out the feathers of the back until 

 they resemble balls of cotton. They are singular birds. One will 

 catch a frog and run around before the others, apparently to tan- 

 talize them. When they bathe they jump into a pool of water, 

 then out and roll in the dust, then into the water again. They im- 

 pose on each other by several hens laying eggs in the same nest. 

 The eggs are very pretty, green and white mingled. Hear the 

 mournful call of the rainbird, a kind of cuckoo which calls almost 

 incessantly the day before a storm, while there is no apparent evi- 

 dence of its approach, yet they are unfailing. Here comes a scis- 

 sors tail, another peculiar bird, one of the fly-catchers. Ah ! the 

 beautiful birds ! We hear their glad songs as they flit trom tree to 



