CALANDRIA MOCKING-BIRD 5 
reminds one of the first attempts of a young bird. 
That a member of so melodious a family should have 
so inferior a song I attribute to the fact that Thrushes 
(unlike the songsters of other genera) sing only in 
the warm season and when the air is calm. In the 
southern portion of the South-American continent 
violent winds prevail in summer, so that this southern 
Thrush sings perhaps less frequently than any other 
song-bird, and appears to be losing the faculty of 
song altogether. 
The two remaining Argentine Thrushes are the 
Black-headed Thrush, Turdus nigriceps, and the 
Argentine Blackbird, Turdus fuscater, both inhabi- 
tants of the North-Western provinces. The Black- 
bird is of a uniform brownish black with yellow feet 
and bill, and is larger than the home bird, being 
11.5 inches long. The song, it is said, resembles that 
of our bird, and is liked even better by some who 
have heard it. 
CALANDRIA MOCKING-BIRD 
Mimus modulator 
Above dark grey, rump tinged with brown; wings nearly black ; 
tail black, the feathers, except the two middle ones, broadly tipped 
with white; under surface dull white; bill and legs black; eye 
olive-green ; length 11 inches. 
Azara has not failed to remark that it would be well 
to find a more appropriate name for this species, 
which was absurdly called Calandria (i.e., Skylark) 
