37O The Naturalist in La Plata. 



that when I saw this small bird the question rose 

 to my mind, What kind of nest does it build ? 



One morning in the month of October, the great 

 breeding-time for birds in the Southern Hemisphere, 

 while cautiously picking my way through a bed of 

 cardoon bushes, the mysterious little creature flitted 

 up and perched among the clustering leaves quite 

 near to me. It uttered a feeble grasshopper-like 

 chirp ; and then a second individual, smaller, paler- 

 coloured, and if possible shyer than the first, showed 

 itself for two or three seconds, after which both 

 birds dived once more into concealment. How glad 

 I was to see them ! for here they were, male and 

 female, in a suitable spot in my own fieldsj where 

 they evidently meant to breed. Every day after 

 that I paid them one cautious visit, and by waiting 

 from five to fifteen minutes, standing motionless 

 cmong the thistles, I always succeeded in getting 

 them to show themselves for a few moments. I 

 could easily have secured them then, but my wish 

 was to discover their nesting habits ; and after 

 watching for some days, I was rewarded by finding 

 their nest ; then for three days more I watched it 

 slowly progressing towards completion, and each 

 time I approached it one of the small birds would 

 flit out to vanish into the herbage. The structure 

 was about six inches long, and not more than two 

 inches in diameter, and was placed horizontally on 

 a broad stiff cardoon leaf, sheltered by other leaves 

 above. It was made of the finest dry grass loosely 

 woven, and formed a simple perfectly straight tube, 

 open at both ends. The aperture was so small that 

 I could only insert my little finger, and the bird 



