372 Mr. E. Gibson on the Ornithology of [Ibis, 



the shore. There are also the remains of six more or less 

 incomplete skeletons of whales on the Yngleses alone. 



About the year 1876 I made the interesting ethnological 

 discovery (in four different localities) of extensive remains 

 of Indian pottery, " bolas perdidas/' flints, etc. The flints 

 were very numerous as regards flahes, and some of the 

 finished arrow-heads of excellent workmanship. These last 

 conclusively prove that they belonged to the former Guarani 

 Indians, and not to the present races now inhabiting the 

 pampas of Buenos Ayres. [N.B. — The preceding is a quota- 

 tion from my previous paper. The end of the Indians — 

 Telmelche and Pehuelche— came in 1880, when General 

 Roca's expedition swept clean the Pampa Central.] 



What follows, then, as may be gathered from these notes, 

 is a natural division of all our birds into three great classes 

 — namely, those of the wood, the plain, and the swamps or 

 marshes. The rincones have also a few species peculiar to 

 them ; but, again, on the other hand, the shore has none. 



The thirty-seven years that have passed since I last wrote 

 have produced no changes in these bird-solitudes, now more 

 of a sanctuary than ever. The general use of wire-fencing 

 has been conducive to their protection, inasmuch that the 

 public is restricted to the roads ; the paddock-system has 

 reduced the number of shepherds by two-thirds; and the 

 gangs of hunters of that giant water-rat, the "Nutria" 

 (Myopotatnus coypu), accompanied by packs of dogs, no 

 longer rove over the land at their own sweet will'^. The 

 nearest railhead is still sixty miles ofl', and likely to 

 remain so. Various droughts (one of four yeaijs' duration) 

 and floods (the last — the greatest on record — enduring for 

 nearly three years) were productive of extraordinary varia- 

 tions in bird-life ; but have always been followed by a return 



* " Valiente ! Me vas a privar de uutriar donde quiero ? " (Angiice : 

 "Oh boaster; Dost thou purpose forbid*ding me to huut the nutria 

 anywhere I choose ? '' — using the insolent second person) was the trucu- 

 lent reply I received on one occasion from the leader of half-a-dozen of 

 these men, who, with a score of mongrels, were raising pandemonium 

 as they systematically quartered a half-dry swamp. 



