MIMUS TEIURUS. 9 



two middle feathers, which are black ; bill and feet black ; eye orange-yellow : 

 total length 9'5 inches, wing 4'8, tail 4*2. Female similar. 



Hob. Paraguay _, Argentine Republic, and Bolivia. 



Azara first met with this king of the Mocking-birds in Paraguay a 

 century ago ; he named it " Calandria de las tres colas/' and described 

 the plumage accurately, but was, I think, mistaken about the colour of 

 the eye, which is orange-red and not olive-green. He says that it is a 

 rare species, possessing no melodious notes, which proves at once that 

 he never heard it sing. D'Orbigny obtained it in Bolivia, Bridges in 

 Mendoza, and more recently it has been found by collectors in various 

 parts of the Argentine country, even in Buenos Ayres, where, however, 

 it is probably only an occasional visitor. But they have told us nothing 

 of its song and of its miraculous mocking-powers. For my part I can 

 think of no other way to describe the surpassing excellence of its 

 melody, which delights the soul beyond all other bird-music, than by 

 saying that this bird is among song-birds like the diamond among 

 stones, which in its many-coloured splendour represents and exceeds 

 the special beauty of every other gem. 



I met with this species on the Rio Negro in Patagonia : it was there 

 called Calandria blanca, a name not strictly accurate, since the bird is 

 not all white, but certainly better than Azara's strange invention of 

 " Lark with three tails." 



The bird was not common in Patagonia, and its only language was a 

 very loud harsh startled note, resembling that of the Mimus calandria ; 

 but it was past the love-season when I first met with it, and the natives 

 all assured me that it possessed a very wonderful song, surpassing the 

 songs of all other birds ; also that it had the faculty of imitating other 

 species. In manners and appearance it struck me as being utterly 

 unlike a Mimus ; in its flight and in the conspicuous white and black 

 of the wings and tail, it looked like a Tyrant of the Tanioptera group. 

 It was extremely shy, had a swift, easy, powerful flight, and, when 

 approached, would rise up high in the air and soar away to a great 

 distance. In February it disappeared from the Rio Negro and did not 

 return till the following October, after the arrival of all the other 

 migrants. It was then that I had the rare good fortune to hear it sing, 

 and I shall never forget the sensation I experienced when listening to its 

 matchless melody. 



While walking through a c^anar-wood one bright morning, my atten- 

 tion was suddenly arrested by notes issuing from a thicket close by, and 

 to which I listened in delighted astonishment, so vastly superior in 

 melody, strength, arid variety did they seem to all other bird-music. 

 That it was the song of a Mimus did not occur to me ; for while the 



