CHAPTER X 

 BIRD MUSIC IN SOUTH AMERICA 



SUMMER, winter and spring, it was an unfail- 

 ing pleasure in Patagonia to listen to the 

 singing of the birds. They were most abundant 

 where the cultivated valley with its groves and 

 orchards was narrowest, and the thorny wilder- 

 ness of the upland close at hand; just as in Eng- 

 land small birds abound most where plantations 

 of fruit trees exist side by side with or near to 

 extensive woods and commons. In the first there 

 is an unfailing supply of insect food, the second 

 affords them the wild cover they prefer, and they 

 pass frequently from one to the other. At a dis- 

 tance from the river birds were not nearly so 

 abundant, and in the higher uplands a hundred 

 miles from the coast they were very scarce. 



When the idle fit was on me it was my custom 

 to ramble in the bushy lands away from the river, 

 especially during the warm spring weather, when 

 there were some fresh voices to be heard of mi- 

 grants newly arrived from the tropics, and the 

 songs of the resident species had acquired a 

 greater vigor and beauty. It was a pleasure sim- 

 ply to wander on and on for hours, moving cau- 



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