CHAPTER XXIII 

 BIRD-NESTING IN NORTHWESTERN ARGENTINA 



LA QUIACA is similar in size and appearance to Villazon, 

 There are a number of stores or trading-posts where miners 

 from the surrounding mountains secure their outfits and 

 provisions. It is also the terminus of the railroad from the 

 south. One may go by rail directly to Buenos Aires. The 

 settlement stands on a level, wind-swept plateau, and the 

 weather was very cold. The neighboring peaks of the Andes 

 are rich hi mines, and multitudes of llamas and mules come 

 down the steep trails each day, laden with copper, bismuth, 

 silver ore, and gold ore. They discharge their burdens at 

 the railroad-station, where it is loaded on cars to be hauled 

 to the smelters in Buenos Aires. 



Our object in coming to the Argentine was to continue 

 the biological survey we had carried on in Bolivia; and also 

 to secure specimens of a rare little bird (Scytalopus) which 

 was thought to exist in the province of Salta. The acquisi- 

 tion of this bird was most important for the light it would 

 throw on certain problems of distribution. 



The little wren-like birds of this genus (Scytalopus) , known 

 commonly as "tapacolas," are perhaps among the most 

 difficult to collect of any species in South America, and for 

 this reason they are invariably only poorly represented in 

 museum collections. Native collectors, hunting mainly 

 with blow-guns, have gathered many thousands of birds, 

 the greater number of which have eventually found their 

 way to millinery establishments and scientific institutions 

 in many parts of the world; but usually only those of bril- 

 liant plumage, and others which could be taken with little 

 difficulty, have been collected. The small, slate-colored or 

 blackish tapacolas, found only in the densest of subtropical 

 forests or among the tangled vegetation bordering bleak, 



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