158 Idle Days in Patagonia. 



" But if a choir of singers were selected in the Old 

 World, and compared with one of equal number 

 gathered in Paraguay, I am not sure which would 

 win the victory." Of the house- wren of La Plata 

 (Troglodytes furvus), Azara says that its song is 

 " in style comparable to that of the nightingale, 

 although its phrases are not so delicate and expres- 

 sive ; nevertheless I count it among the first 

 singers." This opinion (with Daines Barrington's 

 misleading table in my mind) made me doubt the 

 correctness of his judgment, or memory, the wren in 

 question being an exceedingly cheerful singer ; but 

 when I came to hear the nightingale, about whose 

 song I had formed so false an idea, it seemed to me 

 that Azara was not far out. Nothing here surprised 

 me more than the song of the British wren a 

 current of sharp high unshaded notes, so utterly 

 different to the brilliant joyous and varied lyric of 

 his near relation in that distant land. 



The melodious wren family counts many genera, 

 rich in species, throughout the Neotropical region : 

 and just as in that continent the thrushes have 

 developed a more varied and beautiful music in the 

 mocking-birds, so it has been with this family in 

 such genera as Thyothorus and Cyphorhinus, which 

 include the celebrated flute-birds and organ-birds of 

 tropical South America. D'Orbigny, in the Voyage 

 dans I'Amerique Meridionale, speaks rapturously of 

 one of these wrens, perched on a bough overhanging 

 the torrent, where its rich melodious voice seemed 

 in strange contrast to the melancholy aspect of its 



