WHITE-THROATED SPINE-TAIL 211 



open ground, its flight being only from bush to bush ; 

 and though it is not timid, it is hard to detect it in 

 its stronghold, and to hear it one would imagine 

 that it was perched overhead on a tree, when it is 

 hidden all the time in the brushwood at the roots/ ' 

 This habit of concealing itself so closely inclines 

 me to think that this species, rather than S. albescens, 

 was the bird described by Azara, although in both 

 species the language is nearly the same, I have 

 nothing to add to the above account from Azara, 

 except that in the love-season this species has a low, 

 strange-sounding little song, utterly unlike its usual 

 strident cry. When singing, it sits motionless on 

 the summit of a low bush in a dejected attitude 

 with head drawn in, and whispers its mysterious 

 little melody at intervals of half a minute. 



WHITE-THROATED SPINE-TAIL 



Synallaxis albescent 



Above, forehead grey, crown pale chestnut; sides of head and 

 neck, back, and tail pale earth-brown ; upper wing-coverts pale 

 chestnut, wing feathers olive-brown ; beneath white, faintly washed 

 with earthy brown, under wing-coverts fulvous ; length 5.3 inches. 



THIS species, although by no means abundant in 

 Buenos Ayres, is met with much more frequently 

 than the S. spixi, which it closely resembles in size, 

 colour, habits, and language. It is indeed an unusual 



