EARTH-CREEPER 203 
PATAGONIAN EARTH-CREEPER 
Upucerthia dumetoria 
Above earthy brown; long superciliary stripe pale ochraceous ; 
wings blackish, with a broad transverse cinnamon bar; tail blackish, 
lateral rectrices tipped with pale cinnamon; beneath dirty white, 
clear white on the throat and middle of the belly; breast feathers 
margined with blackish; under wing-coverts pale cinnamon ; bill dark 
horn-colour, pale at the base; feet horn-colour; length 9 inches. 
THESE birds are common in Patagonia, being resident 
there ; some individuals, however, migrate north in 
winter, and I once obtained a pair, male and female, 
near Buenos Ayres city in the month of June. 
Their legs are short, but on the ground their 
movements are very rapid, and, like the Miner 
(Geositta) already described, they fly reluctantly, 
preferring to run rapidly from a person walking 
or riding, and at such times they look curiously 
like a pigmy Curlew with an extravagantly long 
beak. They are active, lively birds, and live in pairs, 
sometimes uniting in small, loose flocks; they are 
partial to places where scattered bushes grow on a 
dry, sterile soil, and have a swift, low flight; when 
flying they frequently utter a shrill, trilling, or 
rapidly reiterated note, in sound resembling laughter. 
In manners, flight, language, and colouring this bird 
closely resembles the smaller short-beaked Geositta 
cunicularia, and like that species it also breeds in 
deep holes in banks; but I am not able to say 
whether it excavates the breeding-hole or takes 
possession of one already made. Durnford found it 
