BIRD LIFE IN THE FOREST. 135 



crest of the bluff to the river was like passing from early spring into mid- 

 summer. The sun was still shining and a glow of warmth pervaded every- 

 thing. Mr. Peterson was much surprised when I told him of my experi- 

 ence with the weather. He assured me that in the valley the day had 

 been one of the most pleasant he had yet experienced in Patagonia. For 

 the first week or ten days of our stay at this camp I visited daily the sum- 

 mit of the bluff just described, in a vain search for remains of that won- 

 derful Pyrotherium mammalian fauna which, according to Ameghino, 

 should be found here in association with remains of dinosaurs. Not a day 

 passed that I did not find remains of dinosaurs, but never the smallest 

 fragment of a mammal. The weather conditions were always the same, 

 alternate sunshine, snow, rain, hail and sleet, swept by a cold, piercing 

 blast that never ceased to come from out the snow-clad peaks and ranges 

 of the Andes. Finally, discouraged with my search after fossils, I aban- 

 doned it and took to the more pleasant occupation of assisting Mr. Peter- 

 son with his work in connection with the recent birds and mammals. 



Each morning, after attending the traps set the previous night for mam- 

 mals, I would take the fowling piece and, with auxiliary barrel and a num- 

 ber of assorted cartridges, set out along the borders of the great forest 

 near which we were encamped. In the early morning the edge of the 

 wood is always much better collecting ground than are the dense forests 

 within. Here, feeding upon the abundant insect life that always frequents 

 such places, were to be found a number of small wrens and sparrows, the 

 white-crested bunting, flocks of the red-breasted meadow lark, the Pata- 

 gonian mocking bird and a number of thrushes and flickers, including 

 the gray-banded woodpecker, Colaptcs agricola. These birds were usually 

 observed in small flocks of four or five, either clinging to the trunk, or 

 sitting in the branches, or on the ground at the base of the half decayed 

 stump of a tree still standing in the grass just without the edge of the 

 forest 



After a couple of hours spent in the vicinity of camp I would return with 

 such game as had been taken and, replenishing my supply of ammunition, 

 strike out to spend the day in the midst of the great forest in search of such 

 birds as were only to be found within its depths. The little green parrakeet, 

 Cyanofyseus pafagonicus, was much the most abundant of the birds frequent- 

 ing the interior of the forests. In places they occurred absolutely by hun- 

 dreds, if not thousands, and were quite distracting by reason of the harsh 



