236 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



and on this account named it the Common Climber, 

 Trepador comun. In Buenos Ayres it is a summer 

 visitant, appearing at the end of September* It is a 

 solitary bird, never seen away from the woods, and 

 invariably utters a loud melancholy cry when passing 

 from one tree to another* It always alights on the 

 trunk close to the ground, clinging to the bark in a 

 vertical position, supported by the tail, and with 

 head thrown far back in order to give free play to 

 the extremely long beak. Having thus alighted, it 

 progresses upwards by short hops, exploring the 

 crevices in the wood for small insects, until it reaches 

 the branches, when it flies off to the next tree. It 

 is in fact a Tree-creeper in its manner of seeking 

 its food. 



RED-CAPPED BUSH-BIRD 



Thamnophilus ruficapillus 



Above olive-brown tinged with rufous ; lores yellowish-white ; super- 

 ciliaries and sides of head whitish grey ; quills olive-brown ; tail black, 

 the rectrices, except the middle pair, tipped and broadly spotted on 

 the inner webs with white ; beneath whitish grey, every feather trans- 

 versely barred with black ; length 63 inches. Female like the male 

 except that the tail is rufous brown and the markings beneath scarcely 

 perceptible. 



THE Red-capped Bush-bird, or Bush-lover, is one 

 of four species of its genus, which range as far south 

 as the Argentine country and are the only repre- 

 sentatives in it of the Family Formicaridaz or Ant- 



