CENTRITES NIGER. 135 



than that bird. It is the smallest of all those varied members of the 

 Tyrannine family which have abandoned forests and marshes and the 

 pursuit of insects on the wing, to live on the \vintry uplands of Pata- 

 gonia, and on the sterile plains bordering on the Andes. 



The male is only five and a quarter inches long. The entire plumage 

 of the male is intensely black, except the back, which is bright chest- 

 nut. The inside of the mouth and tongue are vivid orange-yellow. 

 The chestnut colour on the female is pale, the rest of the plumage grey, 

 except the quills, which are dark. 



Its summer home is in the southern portion of Patagonia, but its 

 nesting-habits are not known. In March it migrates north, and is very 

 common everywhere on the pampas throughout the winter. They arrive 

 in small parties of three or four, or in little loose flocks of about a 

 dozen individuals, travelling with a swift low flight. Males, females, 

 and young, grey like the last, arrive together ; shortly after arriving the 

 young males become mottled with black, and before leaving acquire 

 the adult plumage. They appear to leave in spring all together, but 

 from a note by Durnford it would appear that the males travel in 

 advance of the females. He says : " Males of this species were 

 common at Chupat throughout September and during the first few days 

 of October. On the 5th of the latter month I observed the first females, 

 which gradually increased in number/' 



The Little Red-backs inhabit open unsheltered plains, and have so 

 great a predilection for bare ground on which they can run freely about, 

 that on their arrival on the pampas, where the earth is thickly carpeted 

 with grass, they are seen attaching themselves to roads, sheep-pens, 

 borders of streams, vizcacha villages, and similar places. They are ex- 

 ceedingly restless, running swiftly over the ground, occasionally darting 

 into the air in pursuit of small flies, and all the flock so scattered that 

 there will be a dozen yards between every two birds. Mr. Barrows 

 describes their lively habits very well : " I think this is one of the most 

 restless birds I ever saw. You cannot depend upon him to be in the 

 same place two consecutive half- seconds. He runs like a Sanderling, 

 and whenever he keeps his feet still by accident, his wings are flirted in 

 a way that shows his anxiety to be off. Several are usually found 

 together, and sometimes a loose flock of a hundred or more is seen. 

 They are very strong on the wing, sometimes mounting rapidly for 

 several hundred feet, if suddenly startled, and after a few moments 

 spent in circling like a Snipe, they drop again almost as suddenly as a 

 shot, and as if from the very clouds." 



