At Last, Patagonia ! 9 



were more abundant. The dense, stiff, dark-coloured 

 foliage of these bushes give them a strange appear- 

 ance on the pale sun dried plains, as of black rocks 

 of numberless fantastic forms scattered over the 

 greyish-yellow ground. No large fowls were seen ; 

 small birds were, however, very abundant, gladden- 

 ing 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, displaying its 

 ruddy under plumage ; occasionally emitting, 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 numerous, and sur- 

 passing 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 plumage, 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 Synal- 

 laxis, moving restlessly about among the leaves, 



