238 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
powerful, and heard only infhe love-season. The call 
is a trill of a single note rapidly reiterated, and loud 
enough to be heard half a mile away; the cry being 
accompanied by vibratory motions of the wings.” 
LITTLE COCK 
Rhinocrypta lanceolata 
Above, head and upper neck reddish brown with a fine white shaft- 
stripe on each feather, the stripes being most conspicuous on the crest- 
feathers ; lower neck, back, rump, and wings greyish olive ; tail blackish ; 
beneath, throat and upper part of breast grey, becoming pure white 
on the middle of the belly; sides of belly and flanks bright chestnut ; 
lower part of belly and flanks and under tail-coverts like the back ; 
bill horn-colour, feet black; length 9 inches. 
THE last Passerine species to be described is the 
only one known to me belonging to the singular 
South American Family, Pteroptochide. They are 
mostly natives of Chili and the south-western 
extremity of the South American continent, but 
have representatives in the Andes of Ecuador 
and Columbia and the high plateau of Central 
Brazil. 
The vernacular name Gallito, or “ Little Cock,” 
by which this species is familiarly known in Pata- 
gonia, cannot fail to strike every one who sees the 
bird as appropriate, for it struts and runs on the 
ground with tail erect, looking wonderfully like a 
minute domestic fowl. In the neighbourhood of 
