Letters of Mr. J. Graham Kerr. 357 



at each end. The kitchen, office, and accommodation for 

 servants are in detached ranches. Surrounding the house, 

 as I said, is a thick plantation or monte, composed of poplars, 

 peaches, willows, elders, and two leguminous trees, one a 

 kind of acacia with yellow flower-heads, the other a labur- 

 num-like tree, with drooping racemes of large white flowers. 

 "When I arrived here the aromas, as the acacias are called, 

 were in beautiful flower ; soon after they were joined by the 

 peaches, and now the white flowers of the " acacia," as it is 

 called here, take their places. Passing outside the monte 

 one is upon the open camp, rolling undulating land, covered 

 with coarse grass, varied by an occasional monte, marking 

 the position of an estancia-house. Owing to the long succes- 

 sion of wet seasons, the low-lying parts of the camp are 

 occupied by shallow lagoons of, on an average, a couple of 

 feet or so in depth. Covering the waters of these lagoons is 

 often a continuous mantle of cushiony Azolla of a rich car- 

 mine-brown colour, mixed with small pieces of Lemna with 

 elliptical thick " leaves/' In the deeper parts of the 

 lagoons grow thick beds of a tall rush, frequently reaching 

 a height of 9 or 10 feet. These rush-beds form the haunts 

 and resting-places of many kinds of water-loving birds. 

 The commonest of all amongst them is the little Rush 

 Spinetail (Phlceocryptes melanops), which may be seen 

 hopping nimbly from rush to rush a few inches above 

 the surface of the water, reaching down every now and 

 then to pick up an insect from amongst the carpet of lemna 

 and azolla. Its peculiar note at once draws one's attention. 

 Several sharp taps, such as are made by tapping a slate with 

 a slate pencil, are followed by a long-drawn sound resembling 

 that sometimes made when one twists a tight-fitting cork 

 in the neck of a bottle. The nest of this Spinetail is 

 also a very interesting structure, built of grass -leaves inter- 

 woven with extraordinary firmness, and covered in with a 

 domed roof; near the top of one side is the little round 

 entrance, covered by a projecting eave, and leading into a 

 beautifully warm little circular chamber, well lined with wool 

 and feathers. The nest is tied firmly between a group of rush- 



