18/2.] MR. W. H. HUDSON ON PATAGONIAN BIRDS. 539 



some future time, and for the present satisfy myself by mentioning 

 a few points in which the bird I am describing differs from the 

 M. calandria. The singing of the Patagonian species is perhaps 

 inferior, his voice being less powerful than that of the other species ; 

 his mellow or clear notes are often mingled with thrill ones resembling 

 the songs or cries of various tenuirostral birds. While incapable 

 of notes so loud or harsh as those of the Buenos-Ayres bird, or of 

 changes so wild and sudden, he possesses even a greater variety of 

 sweet notes : day after day, for months, I heard them singing, and 

 I never once listened to them for any length of time without hearing 

 some note or notes that I had never heard before. I have 

 often observed that when a bird, while singing, emits a few of 

 these new notes, he seems surprised and delighted with them ; for 

 after a silent pause he repeats them again and again a vast number 

 of times, as if to impress them on his memory. When he once 

 more resumes his varied singing, for hours, and sometimes for days, 

 the expression he has discovered is still a favourite, and recurs with 

 the greatest frequency. Many individuals seem to possess a peculiar 

 style of singing; and they seem more or less able to borrow or 

 imitate each other's notes: sometimes all the birds frequenting a 

 thicket will be heard constantly repeating, for many days, a few par- 

 ticular notes as if they possessed no other song, while in other 

 localities these notes wi'll not be heard at all. The bird sits on the 

 summit of a bush when singing; and its music is heard in all 

 seasons, and in all weathers, from dawn till after dark; but he 

 usually sings in a leisurely unexcited manner, remaining silent a 

 long interval after every five or six or dozen notes, and apparently 

 listening to his brother performers. These snatches of melody 

 often seem like a prelude or promise of something better comin°- ; 

 there is in them such exquisite sweetness, such variety, that the 

 hearer is ever expecting a fuller measure ; and still the bird opens its 

 bill to delight and disappoint him, as if not yet ready to begin. 



6. [Mimus triurus, Vieill. ; Scl. Cat. A. B. p. 9.— P. L. S.*] 

 I send you one specimen of the beautiful Calandria hlanca. I do 

 not know if any examples of this bird have ever been examined by 

 naturalists. It is by no means nmnerous in Patagonia; certainly 

 nothing was known of its song ; but the pleasure I felt on making 

 the discovery of its vocal powers it would be idle for me to attempt 

 to portray. I noticed in the woods of chunar, along the Rio Ne°ro, 

 a few individuals of this species in the month of February ; they 

 did not sing then, but sometimes uttered a harsh note like that of 

 the Mimus calandria. Had it not been for this note I should have 

 thought the bird to be (seeing it only at a distance) a species of 

 Tenioptera, from its black and white plumage, wild disposition, its 



* I cannot distinguish the single specimen of this bird sent by Mi- Hudson 

 from Mimus triurus, met with by Azara in Paraguay, by Bridges 'near AIendo7i 

 and by D'Orbigny in Chiquitos, Bolivia. It is rather larger than my skin (col- 

 lected by Bridges), and the black on the wings and tail is deeper : but I cannot 

 regard it as distinct. — P. L. S. 



