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



be a particularly cold month, notwithstanding which I 

 observed it practically every day about tlie buildings, woods, 

 and plains; on the 19th I recorded '^Five or six seen in the 

 open canipo, though the thennonicter was at 23° F., and 

 ice on tlie swamps ^^; on the 21thj " Very cold. After sun- 

 down saw nine or ten about the patio, chasing one another 

 and twittering/' Again, on 10 July, 1876, ''Some thirty 

 seen perched on a fence. Mild day/' Or, 27 April, 1877, 

 " Fifty or sixty seen in open campo, perched on or flyiug 

 about a sheep-corral. Fi)ie day." And so on, during many 

 years' records. Take another abnormal instance. The 

 23ik1 of August is still exceedingly early spring, yet "Late 

 in the afternoon a flock of over fifty made its appearance, 

 flying about over the head- station and occasionally alighting 

 on one of the Ombu trees in the patio, all apparently very 

 tired. Bitterly cold day, the continuance of months of 

 extremely frosty and dry weather. These had vanished 

 again, the next day.'^ Roughly speaking, the consensus of 

 my notes for this district would give the middle of August 

 for the spring arrival and the middle of April for the general 

 autumnal departure. 



As described by Mr. Hudson, the nesting-season is 

 initiated by much inspection of old and new sites, and 

 a prolonged Avarfare between the would-bc occupants. 

 Taken as a whole, the sites which are preferred are those 

 in trees, generally the deserted abode of the Red-crested 

 Woodpecker {Chrysoptilus cristatus); next in favour are 

 holes in buildings and mouths of waterpipes, etc. It 

 has never been my fortune to corroborate Mr. Hudson's 

 statement that " It sometimes lays in a tree, in a large 

 nest, previously abandoned, of the Lenatero or Firewood- 

 gatherer (^Anumhiiis acuticaiidatus) ." But I once found a 

 nest, all feathers, within that of an Oven-bird (Furnarius 

 rufus). On the neighbouring Estancia of the Tuyu one of 

 the entrances to the garden of the head-station is through an 

 archway formed by the jawbones of a whale. In a cavity 

 of this, about eight feet from the ground, I observed a 

 Swallow flying, in and out, evidently to its nest. The fact 



