130 Mr. W. B. Lee's Ornithological Notes 



would be very inconvenient to get to my destination in Entre 

 Rios on account of the civil war then going on, and in the 

 Hotel de la Paix I met two gentlemen who told me they were 

 going up country to their " estancia " near Frayle Muerto, and 

 most kindly asked me to accompany them. The journey is not 

 very interesting ; the river from Buenos Ayres to Rosario is 

 generally clothed on both sides with a jungle of long grass 

 and thick scrubby trees, the home of quantities of large Storks 

 and Herons and wildfowl of several kinds. Now and then 

 a carpincho appeared on the banks or in the water ; but this 

 was the only beast to be seen ; and altogether the journey is 

 certainly monotonous. From Rosario the railway runs to 

 Cordova ; and Frayle Muerto is about halfway. The country 

 is of course perfectly fiat ; and the only things to be seen in 

 the way of wild animals are a few deer and Ostriches. On 

 the banks of the river at Frayle Muerto there is some rather 

 pretty wood ; but this disappears directly you leave the banks, 

 and out towards my friends' "estancia" the only trees are occa- 

 sional small patches of scrubby brushwood scattered often at 

 distances of several leagues from each other over the endless 

 fiat plains. These scrubby trees are chiefly algarroba and que- 

 bracho, the former being the best firewood I ever saw ; but so 

 little wood is there that all our firewood had to be brought from 

 Frayle Muerto, about thirty-five miles distance. A river runs 

 just below the "estancia;" but there is no wood along its banks, 

 only a strip of long grass on each side, some two or three hun- 

 dred yards wide, in which the pumas take refuge after supping 

 on the sheep of the " estancia." Occasionally, but much more 

 rarely, a jaguar made his appearance. One was killed the 

 Sunday before I got there, and one two or three years before. 

 They were said to be plentiful some twenty or thirty leagues 

 further along the river. We used to ride out with as many 

 dogs as we could collect, and beat along the banks for these 

 animals ; but I never saw a jaguar, and only shot one puma. 

 Deer and Ostriches were plentiful, but shy. During the greater 

 part of my stay here the river was almost dry ; but we had a 

 little rain at last ; and then there were plenty of Ducks and 

 Blue-winged Teals, and not unfrequcntly Geese and Swans — 



