162 Mr. O. V. Aplin on the 



tiueut told me that it was everywhere celebrated for its song. 

 The late E, W, White, in a note quoted in ' Argentine 

 Ornithology/ aj)plies this name to T.fuscater; but Seiior 

 Don Luis Cincinato Bollo_, in a little work containing de- 

 scriptions of the birds indigenous to the ' Republicas Oriental 

 y Argentina/ says : " Se conocen dos zorzales — el zorzal de 

 pecho Colorado y el zorzal de pecho bianco/^ — i. e. this and 

 the preceding species. 



3. MiMus MODULATOR. Calaudria Mocking-bird. 



The Calaudria is a common resident, especially about 

 houses where there are any trees. Every patch of shrub- 

 grown boulder rocks has its one or more pairs, and they are 

 also found in the more open parts of the monte. They 

 rear, or try to rear, two or perhaps three broods in the year, 

 as may be gathered from the following notes : — October 22nd : 

 nest in an olive-tree, cup-shaped ; built of sticks and wool ; 

 lined with long horse-hair and rootlets ; contained one egg 

 and five eggs of the Toldo {Molothrus bonariensis). Octo- 

 ber 24th : nest with one egg and two eggs of the Toldo. 

 October 28th : young on the wing. October 31st : nest 

 with one egg and two Toldo^s eggs. November 9th : nest in 

 tala bush, built of twigs and roots and a few bits of wool ; 

 lined with rootlets ; contained four fresh eggs. November 

 15th: nest with two eggs slightly sat on. At that date the 

 birds were singing well. January 8th : nest containing two 

 eggs and one Toldo^s. The birds were singing again then 

 after a slight break. The song of this bird is pleasing, but 

 rather poor. The usual strain is — ''chow, chow, chow, 

 chow ! " (leisurely), " chi, chi, chi, chi ! " (highly pitched 

 and fortissimo) . Individual birds differ a little sometimes. 

 I heard one or two possessing a fine musical whistling note, 

 and another, with a variation of the first part of the song 

 into " shuk, shuk, shuk ! " had a very high note like one of 

 the lively notes of the Nightingale. But these variations 

 are quite exceptional, and I should not have attributed 

 mocking powers to the Calaudria, which, however, possesses 

 a considerable repertory of '' swear-words '•" for use when its 



