SCREAMING COW-BIRD 97 
Buenos-Ayrean pampas, where a few individuals 
are usually found in every large plantation; and, 
like the Bay-winged Cow-bird, it remains with us 
the whole year. It is not strictly gregarious, but in 
winter goes in parties, seldom exceeding half a dozen 
individuals, and in the breeding-season in pairs. One 
of its most noteworthy traits is an exaggerated hurry 
and bustle thrown into all its movements. When 
passing from one branch to another, it goes by a 
series of violent jerks, smiting its wings loudly 
together; and when a party of them return from 
the fields they rush wildly and loudly screaming to 
the trees, as if pursued by a bird of prey. They are 
not singing-birds; but the male sometimes, though 
rarely, attempts a song, and utters, with considerable 
effort, a series of chattering unmelodious notes. 
The chirp with which he invites his mate to fly has 
the sound of a loud and smartly given kiss. His 
warning or alarm note when approached in the 
breeding-season has a soft and pleasing sound; it 
is, curiously enough, his only mellow expression. 
But his most common and remarkable vocal per- 
formance is a cry beginning with a hollow-sounding 
internal note, and swelling into a sharp metallic 
ring; this is uttered with tail and wings spread and 
depressed, the whole plumage raised like that of a 
strutting turkey-cock, whilst the bird hops briskly 
up and down on its perch as if dancing. From its 
puffed-out appearance, and from the peculiar char- 
acter of the sound it emits, I believe that, like the 
Pigeon and some other species, it has the faculty of 
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