PHLCEOCRYPTES MELANOPS. 175 



Description. Above, forehead brown, crown blackish, broad superciliaries 

 buffy white ; upper half of back black, marked with a few grey stripes ; lower 

 back and rump, also sides of head and neck, light brown ; wings blackish, 

 mottled with light chestnut on the coverts ; and a broad band of the same colour 

 occupying the basal half of the wing-feathers ; tail blackish, the two middle 

 feathers brownish grey, the others slightly tipped with the same colour; 

 beneath white, more or less tinged on the throat, flanks, and under tail-coverts 

 with pale brown ; under wing-coverts fulvous ; bill and feet pale horn-colour : 

 whole length 5*8 inches, wing 2'3, tail 1'6. Female similar. 



Hab. Chili, Patagonia, and Argentina. 



This is one of our few strictly migratory species in the family 

 Dendrocolaptidce. Probably it winters in South Brazil, as in the 

 northern parts of the Argentine country it is said to be a summer 

 visitor. On the pampas it appears in September, and all at once 

 becomes very abundant in the rush-beds growing in the water, where 

 alone it is found. The migration no doubt is very extensive, for in 

 spring I found it abundant in the rush- beds in the Rio Negro valley, 

 and Durnford met with it much further south on the river Sanguelen, a 

 tributary of the Chupat. Migratory birds are, as a rule, very little 

 given to wandering ; that is to say, they do not go much beyond the 

 limits of the little coppice, reed-bed, or spot of ground which they 

 make their summer home, and this species is no exception. It 

 spends the warm season secluded in its rush-bed : and when disturbed 

 flies with great reluctance, fluttering feebly away to a distance of a few 

 yards, and then dropping into the rushes again, apparently quite 

 incapable of a sustained flight. How a bird so feeble on the wing, and 

 retiring in its habits, is able to perform a long, annual migration, when 

 in traversing vast tracts of open country it must be in great peril from 

 rapacious kinds, is a great mystery. No doubt many perish while 

 travelling ; but there is this circumstance in their favour : an incredible 

 number of birds of various kinds, many as weak and exposed to attack 

 as the Phlceocryptes, migrate simultaneously ; Hawks are very thinly 

 scattered along their route, and as a rule these birds feed only once or 

 twice a day, if the meals are large enough to fill the stomach, so that 

 while the Hawk is inactive, digesting his meal, thousands of migrants 

 have sped by on their journey and are beyond his reach for ever. 



This Spine-tail seldom ventures out of its rush-bed, but is 

 occasionally seen feeding in the grass and herbage a few yards removed 

 from the water. Its language is peculiar, this being a long cicada-like 

 note, followed by a series of sounds like smart taps on a piece of dry 

 wood. It frequents the same places as the small Many-coloured Tyrant 

 (Cyanotis azara), and these little neighbours, being equally inquisitive, 



