SCREAMING COW-BIRD 97 



Buenos-Ayrean pampas, where a few individuals 

 are usually found in every large plantation ; and, 

 like the Bay-winged Cow-bird, it remains with us 

 the whole year. It is not strictly gregarious, but in 

 winter goes in parties, seldom exceeding half a dozen 

 individuals, and in the breeding-season in pairs. One 

 of its most noteworthy traits is an exaggerated hurry 

 and bustle thrown into all its movements. When 

 passing from one branch to another, it goes by a 

 series of violent jerks, smiting its wings loudly 

 together ; and when a party of them return from 

 the fields they rush wildly and loudly screaming to 

 the trees, as if pursued by a bird of prey. They are 

 not singing-birds ; but the male sometimes, though 

 rarely, attempts a song, and utters, with considerable 

 effort, a series of chattering unmelodious notes. 

 The chirp with which he invites his mate to fly has 

 the sound of a loud and smartly given kiss. His 

 warning or alarm note when approached in the 

 breeding-season has a soft and pleasing sound ; it 

 is, curiously enough, his only mellow expression. 

 But his most common and remarkable vocal per- 

 formance is a cry beginning with a hollow-sounding 

 internal note, and swelling into a sharp metallic 

 ring ; this is uttered with tail and wings spread and 

 depressed, the whole plumage raised like that of a 

 strutting turkey-cock, whilst the bird hops briskly" 

 up and down on its perch as if dancing. From its 

 puffed-out appearance, and from the peculiar char- 

 acter of the sound it emits, I believe that, like the 

 Pigeon and some other species, it has the faculty of 



