AT LAST, PATAGONIA! 9 



the parched wilderness with their minstrelsy. 

 Most noteworthy among the true songsters were 

 the Patagonian mocking bird and four or five 

 finches, two of them new to me. Here I first made 

 the acquaintance of a singular and very pretty 

 bird the red-breasted plant-cutter, a finch too, 

 but only in appearance. It is a sedentary bird and 

 sits conspicuously on the topmost twig, display- 

 ing its ruddy under plumage; occasionally emit- 

 ting, by way of song, notes that resemble the faint 

 bleatings of a kid, and, when disturbed, passing 

 from bush to bush by a series of jerks, the wings 

 producing a loud humming sound. Most numer- 

 ous, and surpassing all others in interest, were 

 the omnipresent Dendrocolaptine bird, or wood- 

 hewers, or tree-creepers as they are sometimes 

 called feeble flyers, in uniform sober brown 

 plumage ; restless in their habits and loquacious, 

 with shrill and piercing, or clear resonant voices. 

 One terrestrial species, with a sandy-brown plum- 

 age, Upucerthia dumetoria, raced along before us 

 on the ground, in appearance a stout miniature 

 ibis with very short legs and exaggerated beak. 

 Every bush had its little colony of brown gleaners, 

 small birds of the genus Synallaxis, moving rest- 

 lessly about among the leaves, occasionally sus- 

 pending themselves from the twigs head down- 

 wards, after the manner of tits. From the dis- 

 tance at intervals came the piercing cries of the 

 cachalote (Homorus gutturalis) a much larger 

 bird, sounding like bursts of hysterical laughter. 



