148 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



birds, seldom seen or heard near the habitations 

 of man, while nearly all the British birds are 

 semi-domesticated, and sing in gardens and or- 

 chards; that this fact, in connection with their 

 more soft and plaintive voices, made American 

 song birds seem less to the European traveler 

 than his own. This statement would hold good, 

 and even gain in force, if for North America we 

 should substitute the hot or larger part of South 

 America, or of the Neotropical region, which com- 

 prises the whole of America south of the Isthmus 

 of Tehuantepec. Throughout the tropical and 

 subtropical portions of this region, which is vastly 

 richer in species than the northern half of the 

 continent, the songsters certainly do not, like 

 those of Europe, mass themselves about the habi- 

 tations of men, as if sweet voices were given to 

 them solely for the delectation of human listeners : 

 they are preeminently birds of the wild forest, 

 marsh, and savannah, and if one of their chief 

 merits has been overlooked, it is because the Euro- 

 pean naturalist and collector, whose object is to 

 obtain many specimens, and some new forms, has 

 no time to make himself acquainted with the life 

 habits and faculties of the species he meets with. 

 Again, bird life is extremely scarce in some places 

 within the tropics, and in the deep forest it is 

 often wholly absent. Of British Guiana, Mr. im 

 Thurn writes, "The almost entire absence of 

 sweet bird-notes at once strikes the traveler who 

 comes from thrush and warbler-haunted temperate 



