BIRD-NESTING IN ARGENTINA 373 



parrots. These birds are taken when very young from nests 

 placed in the cavities of trees, and are reared by hand until 

 they are able to eat unaided. Usually two are found in 

 a nest — occasionally three. They also brought a tame 

 coypu rat and several three-banded armadillos. 



Perico is surrounded by miles of cattle lands, light woods, 

 and limited areas covered with vegetation of a semiarid 

 type. In the latter places small deer or brockets are not 

 uncommon ; they hide in the low, thorny growth of Spanish 

 bayonet until one is within a few yards of them, then dash 

 away at great speed; the inhabitants hunt them with dogs 

 trained for the purpose, and rarely fail to bag their quarry, 

 though usually after a long chase. 



We found the coral-billed tinamou not uncommon in 

 the wooded districts. They are essentially birds of the 

 tree-covered regions and are difficult to secure on account 

 of their terrestrial habits, and also owing to the fact that 

 they adhere closely to the densest cover. I have on a 

 number of occasions seen captive specimens, but they seem 

 to not take kindly to the restricted life of a cage or aviary, 

 and spent most of the time dashing wildly about, injuring 

 themselves so seriously that they did not long survive. 



A number of the birds of this locality are not included in 

 the avifauna of Rosario de Lerma, but belong to the Chaco 

 type, and I recognized some species which were common 

 near Asuncion, Paraguay; among them a large blue jay 

 and a brown-shouldered oriole. 



Our next station was at Volcan. About the only attrac- 

 tive thing about this place was a great lake almost entirely 

 surrounded by high hills, and teeming with water-fowl. 

 The Quechua boy we had brought from Bolivia was the 

 first to find the lake. He rushed back to us excitedly with 

 the information that there was a large body of water near 

 by with a huge, white duck on it; he had shot at the queer 

 bird, that had a black neck, a number of times but failed 

 to hit it. Fortunate for all of us that his marksmanship 

 was poor ! The "duck" was of course a black-necked swan 



