128 BIRDS OF , PLATA 
The song is continued all the year, and is heard 
even on the coldest days in winter; the notes are 
few and not highly melodious, but are cheerful and 
vigorous. 
The nest is made of dry grass and rootlets attached 
to the rushes in moist ground, and placed close to 
or resting on the surface. The eggs are five, the 
ground-colour white spotted or blotched with red- 
dish brown. 
MILITARY STARLING 
Trupialis defilippit 
Slightly smaller than last; plumage the same except the under 
wing-coverts, which are black. 
THROUGHOUT the country where this species abounds 
it is called Pecho colorado, which is certainly better 
than Azara’s barbarous, if picturesque, name of 
Degollado; but no happier name than militaris 
could have been invented for it, by which it was 
formerly known to naturalists; and though it was 
given to the bird merely on account of the red breast, 
and was therefore equally applicable to all the red- 
breasted species on the globe, in this case it acciden- 
tally seemed to describe a peculiar habit of the bird, 
as well as its bright livery. 
In size, form, gait, flight, language, and colour the 
present bird very closely resembles the Patagonian 
Starling ; but the crimson on the breast is brighter 
