Birds of Urnguay. 167 



Swallow enter a hole in tlie mud wall of a rancho, made 

 either by the Minera or a Pampas Woodpecker. 



14. Atticora rucATA. Brown Martin. (Plate V. fig. 2, 



egg-) 



A summer visitor, much less common than the Bank 

 Swallow. My first experience of this little bird took place 

 on the day I came up the country — 19tli October, when on 

 a coldish dull afternoon we stopped to change horses at a 

 little pulperia on the northern slope of the Cuchilla Grande, 

 and I w^atched a pair of Brown Martins skimming over the 

 ground and coming within a few yards of where I stood. 

 On the 21st a pair were breeding in company with four or 

 five pairs of their congeners in the bank of a cailada, and 

 on the 18th November I found three or four "pairs breeding 

 with the other species in the high bank of a tributary of the 

 Monzon. The next day I dug out a solitary nest in the 

 bank of a small Canada near tlie house. The hole (evidently 

 the old habitation of a Minera) was very narrow for about 

 30 inches, and was then enlarged into a round chamber. 

 The nest was of grass, lined with Tinamu^s feathers and 

 some white ones, and contained five delicate white eggs, 

 quite fresh. The habits and general appearance, apart from 

 colour, of these birds are very similar to those of the last- 

 mentioned species. They left earlier in the season — probably 

 in mid-February. 



15. Stephanophorus leucocephalus. White-capped 

 Tanager. 



This beautiful bird — the Cardinal imperial as it is some- 

 times called — is fairly common in the montes of the Arroj^o 

 Grande and the Bio Negro ; it always keeps to the thicker 

 parts, and I never saw it elsewhere. It doubtless breeds 

 there, but I did not find the nest. One that I shot had been 

 feeding on the berries of the moye. Birds shot in mid-March 

 were not over the moult. I do not know whether it is resident, 

 but should suppose so, as I saw^ two on the 23rd May, i. e. 

 nearly the end of autumn. 



N 2 



