Bird Music in South America. 155 



while the sober-coloured birds of temperate regions, 

 especially of Europe, have the gift of melody ; that 

 sweet notes are heard in England, and piercing cries 

 and grating screams within the tropics. As a fact 

 the dull-plumaged species in the hot regions greatly 

 outnumber those that are gaily-coloured. To 

 mention only two South American passerine fami- 

 lies, the woodhewers and ant-birds, numbering 

 together nearly five hundred species, or as many as 

 all the species of birds in Europe, are with scarcely 

 an exception sober- coloured. The melodious gold- 

 finch, yellow bunting, linnet, blue tit, chaffinch, and 

 yellow wagtail, would look very gay and conspicu- 

 ous among them. Yet these sober-coloured tropical 

 birds I have mentioned are not singers. 



It must also be borne in mind that South America 

 embraces a great variety of climates ; that all the 

 vast region, which comprises Chili, the southern 

 half of Argentina, and Patagonia, is in the temperate 

 zone. Also, that a large proportion of the South 

 American songsters belong to families that are 

 universal, in which all the finest voices of Europe 

 are included thrushes, warblers, wrens, larks, 

 finches. The true thrushes are well represented, 

 and Some differ but slightly from European forms 

 the whistle of the Argentine blackbird is some- 

 times mistaken by Englishmen for that of the 

 smaller home bird. The mocking-birds form a 

 group of the same family (Turdidae), but with more 

 highly-developed vocal powers. It is true that the 

 tanagers, numbering about four hundred species, 



