2 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



the harsh screams and alarm notes of the other 

 Thrushes in this district. 



Whether it is a fine singer or not within the tropics 

 I am unable to say, its vocal powers having received 

 no attention from the naturalists who have observed 

 it* With us in the temperate climate of Buenos Ayres, 

 where it commences to sing in September, it has the 

 finest song of any bird known to me in this region, 

 excepting the White -banded Mocking-bird, Mimas 

 triurus. Like the English Song-Thrush, but unlike 

 its near neighbours the Red-bellied Thrush and the 

 Magellanic Thrush, it perches on the summit of a 

 tree to sing. Its song is, however, utterly unlike that 

 of the English bird, which is so fragmentary and, as 

 Burroughs describes it, made up of " vocal atti- 

 tudes and poses," The two birds differ also in voice 

 as much as in manner. The strains of the Dusky 

 Thrush are poured forth in a continuous stream, 

 with all the hurry and freedom of the Skylark's song ; 

 but though so rapidly uttered, every note is distinct 

 and clear, and the voice singularly sweet and far- 

 reaching. At intervals in the song there recurs a 

 two-syllabled note twice repeated, purely metallic, 

 and its clear bell-like te-ling te-ling always comes as 

 a delightful surprise to the listener, as it sounds like 

 an instrumental accompaniment to the song. 



The song is altogether a very fine one, its peculiar 

 charm being that it seems to combine two opposite 

 qualities of bird-music, plaintiveness and joyousness, 

 in some indefinable manner. 



I have never heard this species sing in a cage or 



