16 MOTACILLIDJE. 



viii. p. 87 (Carlme) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. vi. p. 244. Cistothorus fasciolatus, 

 Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 476 (Mendoza). 



Description. Above pale sandy brown, variegated with black streaks ; head 

 darker brown, streaked with black; the hind neck paler brown, with narrow 

 black streaks ; wing-coverts brown ; tail-feathers dark sandy brown, barred 

 with blackish brown ; under surface pale sandy buff : total length 4-3 inches, 

 wing 1-85, tail 1*6. Female similar. 



Hab. Argentina, Patagonia, and Falkland Islands. 



This small Wren is rarely seen, being nowhere common, although 

 widely distributed. It prefers open grounds covered with dense reeds 

 and grasses, where it easily escapes observation. I have met with it 

 near Buenos Ayres city ; also on the desert pampas, in the tall pampas- 

 grass. It is likewise met with along the Parana river, and in Chili, 

 Patagonia, and the Falkland Islands. In the last-named locality 

 Darwin found it common, and says that it has there an extremely feeble 

 flight, so that it may easily be run down and taken. 



The Marsh- Wren has a sweet and delicate song, resembling that of the 

 House-Wren (Troglodytes furvus} ,but much less powerful. It does not 

 migrate ; and on the pampas I have heard it singing with great animation 

 when the pampas-grass, where it sat perched, was white with frozen dew. 

 Probably its song, like that of Troglodytes furvus, varies in different 

 districts ; at all events, the pampas bird does not possess so fine a song 

 as Azara ascribes to his ' f Todo Voz " in Paraguay, which is undoubtedly 

 the same species. 



Fam. V. MOTACILLID^E, OR WAGTAILS. 



The Wagtails and Pipits are closely-allied forms, and are usually 

 referred to the same family of Oscines. The Wagtails are restricted to 

 the Old World, although it has been recently ascertained that some of 

 them occasionally occur as stragglers in the northern latitudes of 

 America. Of the almost cosmopolitan Pipits about eight or nine 

 species are sparingly distributed over the prairies and pampas of the 

 New World. One of these is a common resident in the pampas of 

 Argentina, and another (perhaps somewhat doubtful species) is occa- 

 sionally met with. 



