130 TYRANNIDJE. 



When one considers the habits of the two birds, even where they 

 are most abundant and seen continually, it is indeed difficult to believe 

 that they are of the same species. They are never seen associating 

 together, even in the love-season, and when I have watched a pair 

 actually engaged in constructing their nest, they appeared to keep as 

 far apart as possible. More than that, the male, while unfriendly 

 towards all other species, appears to cherish a special antipathy against 

 the red bird ; and when one comes near him never fails to pursue it 

 with the greatest virulence from the neighbourhood. He is also strictly 

 solitary, but the red birds frequently unite in small parties, especially in 

 autumn, when I have often seen as many as a dozen together. 



Altogether the Silver-bill has been a puzzle in the past, and it would 

 now appear, from some recent observations made by Mr. Barrows, 

 that we have not yet got to the end of all the curious points in its 

 habits. Without doubt it is migratory. Its range extends from 

 Paraguay to Patagonia, where it is not common. In Paraguay and the 

 hotter parts of the Argentine country it is probably stationary; in 

 Buenos Ayres, where it is most abundant, many individuals remain all 

 the year in sheltered places, and the migration appears to become more 

 definite the further south we get. Mr. Barrows travelled south across 

 the pampas in the autumn, and says : " The species was met with at 

 all points visited, but south of the Azul not a single male in the black 

 plumage was seen, though the brown birds (presumably females or 

 young) were met with almost every day for nine weeks, and frequently 

 in large numbers. Of course I began to suspect that the males must 

 moult into a brown suit after nesting, as do our Bobolinks and many 

 other birds, but I shot specimens at various times, and all proved to be 

 either females or young males, and as I was confident that at Con- 

 ception black males were to be found through the year, I was at a loss 

 for an explanation, and am so still." 



The male Silver-bill is entirely black, there is nothing in natnre 

 blacker than its plumage ; and, to enhance the effect, the beak is of a 

 very delicate primrose-yellow, which at a little distance appears white, 

 hence the vernacular name. The eye, and broad free skin surrounding it, 

 which is ruffed like an Elizabethan collar, are of the same faint primrose 

 hue. The secondary wing-quills are pure white, but the white is only 

 displayed when the bird flies. The female has the naked skin encircling 

 the eye, but its colour, as also that of the beak, is much darker than in 

 the male. Entire upper plumage dark brown ; secondaries chestnut ; 

 lower parts fawn-colour, marked with brown. The young males are at 

 first like the females in colour, and do not acquire the black plumage 

 until the endo'f the summer. 



