AVES TURDID^. 823 



singer. In October, a few days before leaving the Rio Negro, I was one 

 morning walking through the thick woods of chtinar, when my attention 

 was suddenly arrested by the song of a bird issuing from a bush close by, 

 a song to which I listened with astonishment and delight, so totally dif- 

 ferent, so vastly superior to the songs of all other birds, whether native or 

 foreign, to which I had ever listened. Notes surpassing in melody, power, 

 and variety those of both the Patagonian and Buenos-Ayrean Mimi were 

 rapidly poured forth in an unbroken stream, till I marvelled that the throat 

 of any bird could sustain so powerful a song for so long a time. . . . 



"I soon advanced near enough to catch sight of the singer, and found 

 it to be the 'Calandria blanca.' I found the pleasure of listening to him 

 enhanced if he was at the same time seen : so carried away with rapture 

 at his own melody seems the bird, so many and so beautiful are the ges- 

 tures and motions with which he accompanies the performance. He would 

 incessantly pass from bush to bush, sometimes soar above the thicket for 

 a hundred yards, with a flight as slow as that of a Heron, and at times 

 rise with a swift, wild flight, then slowly circle down and sit on the sum- 

 mit of a bush, with the broad wings and tail spread out, an object beauti- 

 ful to see. What a pity it is that this bird should frequent only a desert 

 country, where so very few can hear it. . . . This bird disappears from the 

 vicinity of the Carmen at the end of summer ; but it probably does not 

 go very far, as it by no means belongs to a migratory family : probably it 

 passes the winter on those great plains covered with forest west of Bahia 

 Blanca." (P. Z. S. 1872, pp. 539-54i) 



Family Turdid^. 



Sharpe, Cat. Birds, Brit. Mus. v. pp. i, 146-406 (1881) ; Hand List Birds, 

 p. Ill (1903). 



Genus TURDUS Linnaeus. 



Turdus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, I, 168 (1758). Type Titrdns nientla 

 Linnaeus. 



Turdus magellanicus magellanicus King. 

 Turdus magellanicus King, P. Z. S. 1830, p. 14 (Straits of Magellan). 



Description. — Adult male, P. U. O. C. 7744, Punta Arenas, Chili, De- 

 cember 12, 1897, J- B. Hatcher. Total length, 9.80 inches; wing, 5.25; 



