196 BIRDS OF BA PLATA 
places Minera (Miner), or Caminante (Traveller or 
Pedestrian), from its habit of running rapidly along 
a clean road or bridle-path before a person riding or 
walking. 
It is a stout little bird, with very short toes quite 
unsuited for perching, and it does not, in fact, ever 
perch on a tree, though it manages to cling to a 
perpendicular bank very well when engaged in 
tunnelling. It is resident and pairs for life, and 
lives in sterile places, feeding on small insects and 
spiders. In manner it is very lively, and runs swiftly 
over the bare ground, stopping very abruptly, then 
running on again, and at every pause slowly moving 
its half-open tail up and down. It flies swiftly, close 
to the ground, and always during its short flight 
trills out its clear, ringing, rapidly reiterated cry, 
which in sound resembles the laughter of a child. 
On the grassy pampas the Mineras invariably attach 
themselves to the Vizcacheras—as the groups of great 
burrows made by the large rodent, the Vizcacha, are 
called; for there is always a space free from grass 
surrounding the burrows where the birds can run 
freely about. In the sides of the deep pit-like entrance 
to one of these burrows the bird bores a cylindrical 
hole, from three to six feet long, and terminating in 
a circular chamber. This is lined with soft dry grass, 
and five white eggs are laid. 
Though the birds inhabit the Vizcacha village all 
the year, they seem always to make a fresh hole to 
breed in every spring, the forsaken holes being given 
up to the small Swallow, Atticora cyanoleuca. 
