XI 



instance the Neotropical or South American char- 

 acter), existing side by side with the unmodified 

 forms: a Thrush, a Siskin, a Swallow, an Owl, a 

 Duck, a Dove, a Plover, etc., hardly (and some- 

 times not at all) distinguishable specifically from 

 Old World forms. And along with those modified 

 and unmodified forms Asiatic, European and North 

 American the distinctly Neotropical forms. Among 

 these last there are species that have a profound 

 interest to the student of the evolution of the bird life 

 of the globe. They are survivals of an incalculably 

 remote period in the earth's history when the greater 

 part of the Southern Hemisphere was land; when 

 South America, South Africa and Australasia were 

 parts of one continent. Among these forms, which 

 have struthious and even older affinities, are the 

 Rheas, the Crypturi (the Partridges of South America) 

 and the Crested Screamer, which Huxley supposed 

 to be related by descent to the Archaeopteryx. 



To go back to the statement made at the beginning 

 of this Introduction that the one interest of this 

 book is in the account of the birds' habits I am 

 tempted in conclusion to add a purely personal 

 note a memory of an incident of thirty years ago. 



About the time of the publication of Argentine 

 Ornithology (1889) a small book of a different kind 

 by me was issued a fictitious record of romantic 

 adventures, entitled The Purple Land. It happened 

 that a copy was sent to an elder brother of mine, 

 living in the city of Cordova, in the Western Argen- 

 tine province of that name* It was sent by another 



