144 OTHER BIRDS. [chap. vii. 



a small kingfisher {Ceryle Americana) ; it has a longer tail 

 than the European species, and hence does not sit in so 

 stiff and upright a position. Its flight also, instead of 

 being direct and rapid, like the course of an arrow, is weak 

 and undulatory, as among the soft-billed birds. It utters a 

 low note, like the clicking together of two small stones. 

 A small green parrot {Conurus murimis), with a gray breast, 

 appears to prefer the tall trees on the islands to any other 

 situation for its building-place. A number of nests are 

 placed so close together as to form one great mass of sticks. 

 These parrots always live in flocks, and commit great 

 ravages on the corn-fields. I was told that near Colonia 

 2500 were killed in the course of one year. A bird with a 

 forked tail, terminated by two long feathers {Tyrannus 

 savana), and named by the Spaniards scissor-tail, is very 

 common near Buenos Ayres ; it commonly sits on a branch 

 of the ombu tree, near a house, and thence takes a short 

 flight in pursuit of insects, and returns to the same spot. 

 When on the wing it presents in its manner of flight and 

 general appearance a caricature-likeness of the common 

 swallow. It has the power of turning very shortly in the 

 air, and in so doing opens and shuts its tail, sometimes in 

 a horizontal or lateral and sometimes in a vertical direction, 

 just like a pair of scissors. 



October 16th. — Some leagues below Rozario, the western 

 shore of the Parana is bounded by perpendicular cliffs, which 

 extend in a long line to below San Nicolas ; hence it more 

 resembles a sea-coast than that of a fresh-water river. It 

 is a great drawback to the scenery of the Parana, that, from 

 the soft nature of its banks, the water is very muddy. The 

 Uruguay, flowing through a granitic country, is much 

 clearer ; and where the two channels unite at the head of 

 the Plata, the waters may for a long distance be distinguished 

 by their black and red colours. In the evening, the wind 

 being not quite fair, as usual we immediately moored, and 

 the next day, as it blew rather freshly, though with a 

 favouring current, the master was much too Indolent to 

 think of starting. At Bajada, he was described to me as 

 ** hombre muy aflicto " — a man always miserable to get on ; 

 but certainly he bore all delays with admirable resignation. 

 He was an old Spaniard, and had been many years in this 

 country. He professed a great liking to the English, but 

 stoutly maintained that the battle of Trafalgar was merely 

 won by the Spanish captains having been all bought over; 



