158 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



More than that, the male, while unfriendly towards 

 all other species, appears to cherish a special anti- 

 pathy against the red bird ; and when one comes 

 near him never fails to pursue it with the greatest 

 violence from the neighbourhood. He is also 

 strictly solitary, but the red birds frequently unite 

 in small parties, especially in autumn, when I have 

 often seen as many as a dozen together. Evidently 

 they have a more social temper than their black mates. 

 The native boys have discovered a strange weak- 

 ness in the SilverbilL When the bird is running 

 about seeking food on the ground, the boy approaches 

 it and hurls a stick or clod and at the same time 

 rushes at it, whereupon the bird as if paralysed 

 remains motionless, and may be taken by the hand. 

 Altogether the Silverbill has been a puzzle in 

 the past, and it would appear, from some obser- 

 vations made by Mr. Barrows, that we have not 

 yet got to the end of all the curious points in its 

 habits. Without doubt it is migratory. Its range 

 extends from Paraguay to Patagonia, where it is not 

 common. In Paraguay and the hotter parts of the 

 Argentine country it is probably stationary ; in 

 Buenos Ayres, where it is most abundant, many 

 individuals remain all the year in sheltered places, 

 and the migration appears to become more definite 

 the further south we get. Mr. Barrows travelled 

 south across the pampas in the autumn, and says : 

 ' The species was met with at all points visited, but 

 south of the Azul not a single male in the black 

 plumage was seen, though the brown birds (pre- 



