140 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



broad tail four inches long, the total length of the 

 bird being nine inches. The throat and space between 

 the beak and eye are white ; all the rest of the body, 

 also the wing and tail coverts, light grey ; tail and 

 wing-quills black, with a pure white band across 

 the base of the primaries. The tertiaries and rectrices 

 are tipped with pale rufous grey. 



It inhabits Brazil south of the equator, Bolivia, 

 and Paraguay, also the northern provinces of the 

 Argentine Republic. Mr. Barrows gives the following 

 account of its lively habits in Entrerios : ' They 

 are commonly seen perched on fences or the tops of 

 bushes or trees in open ground, frequently making 

 sallies for winged insects, or dropping to the ground 

 to catch a grasshopper or worm. When shot at while 

 perched and watching you, they almost invariably 

 leave the perch at the flash, pitching forward and 

 downward, and usually evading the shot, even at 

 short range. Several times I have secured them by 

 shooting about a foot below and two feet in front of 

 them as they sat, but they do not always fly in this 

 direction. The rapidity of their flight when fright- 

 ened, or when quarrelling, is simply astonishing. I 

 have seen one chase another for three or four min- 

 utes, doubling, turning, twisting, and shooting, now 

 brushing the grass, and now rising to a height of 

 at least two or three hundred feet, and all the 

 movements so rapid that the eye could scarcely 

 follow them; and at the end of it each would 

 go back to the top of his own chosen weed-stalk, 

 apparently without a feather ruffled." 



