CALANDRIA MOCKING-BIRD 5 



reminds one of the first attempts of a young bird. 

 That a member of so melodious a family should have 

 so inferior a song I attribute to the fact that Thrushes 

 (unlike the songsters of other genera) sing only in 

 the warm season and when the air is calm. In the 

 southern portion of the South-American continent 

 violent winds prevail in summer, so that this southern 

 Thrush sings perhaps less frequently than any other 

 song-bird, and appears to be losing the faculty of 

 song altogether. 



The two remaining Argentine Thrushes are the 

 Black-headed Thrush, Turdus nigriceps, and the 

 Argentine Blackbird, Turdus fuscater, both inhabi- 

 tants of the North- Western provinces. The Black- 

 bird is of a uniform brownish black with yellow feet 

 and bill, and is larger than the home bird, being 

 11.5 inches long. The song, it is said, resembles that 

 of our bird, and is liked even better by some who 

 have heard it. 



CALANDRIA MOCKING-BIRD 



Mimus modulator 



Above dark grey, rump tinged with brown ; wings nearly black ; 

 tail black, the feathers, except the two middle ones, broadly tipped 

 with white ; under surface dull white ; bill and legs black ; eye 

 olive-green ; length 1 1 inches. 



AZARA has not failed to remark that it would be well 

 to find a more appropriate name for this species, 

 which was absurdly called Calandria (i.e., Skylark) 



