ATTICORA FUCATA. 35 



gliding to and fro before a traveller's horse, to catch the small twilight- 

 moths driven up from the grass. A person riding on the pampas usually 

 has a number of Swallows flying round him, and I have often thought 

 that more than a hundred were before my horse at one time ; but, from 

 the rapidity of their motions, it is impossible to count them. I have 

 frequently noticed individuals of the four most common species follow- 

 ing me together; but after sunset, and when the other species have long 

 forsaken the open grassy plain for the shelter of trees and houses, the 

 diminutive Bank- Swallow continues to keep the traveller company. At 

 such a time, as they glide about in the dusk of evening, conversing 

 together in low tremulous tones, they have a peculiarly sorrowful appear- 

 ance, seeming like homeless little wanderers over the great level plains. 



When the season of migration approaches they begin to congregate 

 in parties not very large, though sometimes as many as one or two 

 hundred individuals are seen together ; these companies spend much of 

 their time perched close together on weeds, low trees, fences, or other 

 slightly elevated situations, and pay little heed to a person approaching, 

 but seem preoccupied or preyed upon by some trouble that has no 

 visible cause. 



The time immediately preceding the departure of the Swallows is 

 indeed a season of very deep interest to the observer of nature. The 

 birds in many cases seem to forget the attachment of the sexes and 

 their songs and aerial recreations ; they already begin to feel the pre- 

 monitions of that marvellous instinct that urges them hence : not yet 

 an irresistible impulse, it is a vague sense of disquiet ; but its influence 

 is manifest in their language and gestures, their wild manner of flight, 

 and their listless intervals. 



The little Bank-Swallow disappears immediately after the Martins. 

 Many stragglers continue to be seen after the departure of the main 

 body ; but before the middle of March not one remains, the migration 

 of this species being very regular. 



31. ATTICORA FUCATA (Temm.). 

 (BROWN MARTIN.) 



Cotyle fucata, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 478 (Mendoza) ; Scl et Salv. Nomend. 

 p. 14 ; White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 596 (Corrientes), 1883, p. 37 (Cordova). 

 Atticora fucata, Sharpe, Cat. B. x. p. 188. 



Description. Above brown ; primary-coverts and quills blackish brown ; tail- 

 feathers dark brown ; crown of head deep rufous, becoming clearer on the nape ; 

 cheeks, throat, and breast pale tawny ; sides of body brown, tinged with rufous ; 

 centre of breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts white; thighs, under wing- 



D2 



