MARTINETA 227 



the dry, sterile plains of that region, preferring places 

 abounding in thin scrub* In disposition it is extremely 

 shy, and when approached springs up at a distance 

 ahead and runs away with the greatest speed and 

 apparently much terrified. Sometimes when thus 

 running it utters short whistled notes like the allied 

 species. It rises more readily and with less noise 

 than the pampas bird, and has a much higher flight* 

 It has one call-note, heard only in the love-season 

 a succession of short whistling notes, like those of 

 the N. maculosa, but without the rapidly uttered con- 

 clusion. 



The nest is made under a small scrubby bush, and 

 contains from five to seven eggs, in form and colour 

 like those of N. maculosa t except that the reddish- 

 purple tint is paler. 



MARTINETA 



Calodromas elegans 



Above densely banded and spotted with black and pale fulvous ; 

 head cinereous, with black striations ; a long recurved vertical crest 

 of black feathers, partly edged with cinereous ; two lateral stripes of 

 the head above and beneath the eye and throat cinnamon white ; 

 beneath pale cinnamon, breast with numerous black cross-bars and 

 black shaft-spots; belly, flanks, and under tail-coverts with broad 

 black cross bands; wings ashy black, with numerous cross bands 

 of pale cinnamon; bill blackish, feet bluish-grey; length 14.5, wing 

 8.3 inches. Female similar. 



THIS fine game-bird in its size and mottled plumage 

 resembles the Rhynchotw rufescens of the pampas, 

 which it represents in the Patagonian region south 



