viii BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



with, nor in all the years of my life in the pampas 

 did I ever have the happiness to meet with anyone 

 to share my interest in the wild bird life of the 

 country I was born in* 



So far the book and its history. It remains to add 

 something concerning its subject the character of 

 the bird life of the district where my observations 

 were made. It is like that of South America generally, 

 but differs in the almost total absence of tropical 

 forms, such as Trogons, Toucans, Puff-birds, Mot- 

 mots, Todies, Jacamars, and Barbets. 



The bird world has been divided by Ornithologists 

 into several geographical regions, and undoubtedly 

 birds differ in widely-separated portions of the earth 

 and, like the races of men, have the stamp of their 

 country or continent on them. But the bird is a 

 volatile being, and vast numbers refuse to belong to 

 any particular region. Some are migratory, and 

 travel to distant lands outside of the region assigned 

 to them, the return journey in many cases covering 

 a distance of 12,000 miles. That a bird should have 

 its breeding and feeding, or summer and winter 

 areas, 6,000 miles apart, seems almost incredible. 

 Thus, in South America, which is called the Neo- 

 tropical Region, there are numerous species that 

 come from the adjoining region of North America, 

 and among these are several species which breed 

 in the arctic regions as high as latitude eighty to 

 eighty-three or four degrees, yet after breeding fly 

 south as far as the southern extremity of Patagonia. 



Besides the strict migrants there are many birds 



