xx INTRODUCTION. 



Finches, Tyrants, and Wood-hewers are remarkable for their abundance, 

 Plant-cutters and Tapacolas for peculiarity of type, and Dippers as an 

 instance of the occurrence of an Arctic form in Antarctic latitudes. 



As regards the second order, Macrochires, the Argentine Avifauna is 

 notably deficient on account of the comparative scarcity of Humming- 

 birds. Although eleven species of this remarkable group have been 

 met with within our limits, the great mass of the Trochilidse, which are 

 now known to number some 400 species, belong to the Tropics. The 

 Swifts are also scantily represented by a single species. The Caprimul- 

 gidse are comparatively more abundant, but slightly below the average 

 in number of species. 



The Argentine Woodpeckers enumerated in the present work are 

 thirteen in number, but several of these are somewhat doubtful species, 

 and others only occur in the extreme northern limits of the Republic. On 

 the whole we may say that the Pici are decidedly deficient in Argentina. 



Nine families of the fourth order, Coccyges, are included in the 

 Neotropical Avifauna, but of these only five are represented in the 

 Argentine Ornis the Motmots, Todies, Jacamars, and Barbets being 

 entirely wanting. The Trogons, Puff-birds, and Toucans are also 

 essentially Tropical forms, and have but one or two representatives on 

 the northern outskirts of the Republic ; so that the Cuckoos and King- 

 fishers are the only two families of Coccyges which play any material 

 r6le in the Argentine Ornis. 



Of the order of Parrots it will be seen from our Table that 142 species 

 are known as belonging to the Neotropical Region, and that only ten of 

 these have been met with within our limits. Of these ten, moreover, 

 several are either doubtful, or only occur on the northern outskirts of 

 Argentina, so that Parrots must be held to be deficient in the Argentine 

 Ornis. As is well known Parrots are mostly inhabitants of the Tropics, 

 and it is quite an exception to the rule that several of these warmth- 

 loving birds should extend into the cold latitudes of Patagonia and Chili. 

 This, however, is paralleled in the Old World by the existence of Parrots 

 in some of the Antarctic Islands south of New Zealand. 



Of the Birds of Prey of the Argentine Republic, Diurnal and Noc- 

 turnal, it is not necessary to say much ; both of these orders are rather 

 in excess as regards the average number of species, the Accipitres espe- 

 cially so. The wide open pampas offer a fine field for Kites and Buz- 

 zards and their kind, and they are as numerous in individuals as in 

 species in such favoured haunts. 



