232 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



XIII. Notes on a Collection of Birds and Eggs from Central 

 Uruguay. By John J. Dalgleish, Esq., M.B.O.U. 

 [Plates VII. and VIII.] 



(Read 20tli April 1881.) 



Tlie Eepublic of Uruguay, or Banda Oriental, has not 

 hitherto received that attention from naturalists which has 

 been bestowed upon its neighbour, the Argentine Confedera- 

 tion, where the recent researches of Burmeister, Hudson, 

 Durnford, and others, not forgetting those of our townsman, 

 Mr Ernest Gibson, have so far supplemented those of 

 D'Orbigny, Darwin, and St Hilaire, as to render the orni- 

 thology of that great division of the old Spanish colonies in 

 South America, almost as well known as that of the United 

 States of JNTorth America. 



Uruguay, although it appears on the map as studded with 

 mountain ranges, is in reality a gently undulating country, 

 whose hills do not rise above 200 or 300 feet above the 

 adjoining valleys. These "cuchillas," as they are called, 

 form, however, the main watersheds of what is generally a 

 well-watered country, although themselves little higher in 

 elevation than the downs or campos which form its great 

 bulk. 



A recent traveller, Dr David Christison, to whose com- 

 prehensive papers I am considerably indebted for these 

 details, informs us that the country may be conveniently 

 divided into four districts : 1st, the eastern, included be- 

 tween the main " cuchiUa " or hill range — a prolongation of 

 the coast line of Brazil — and the Atlantic, with an area of 

 about 170 miles by 100, and drained into the ocean, princi- 

 pally by the river CeboUati ; 2d, the southern, 200 

 miles by 60, forming the northern shore of the Rio de la 

 Plata; 3d, the central and northern district, considerably 

 the largest, measuring about 250 miles by 140, drained 

 westwards into the Uruguay by the Ptio Negi'o ; and 4th, 

 the north-western, 150 miles by 80, also drained into the 

 Uruguay, but by a system of numerous and comparatively 

 small streams. 



