540 MR. W. H. HUDSON ON PATAGONIAN BIRDS. [Apr. 16, 



rapid, high, and graceful flight. It disappeared in March with- 

 out my having obtained specimens or heard it sing ; for the native 

 residents in Patagonia, many of whom were well acquainted with 

 the bird, had told me that it was a very fine singer. In October, a 

 few days before leaving the Rio Negro, I was one morning walking 

 through the thick woods of chahar, when my attention was suddenly 

 arrested by the song of a bird issuing from a bush close by, a song 

 to which I listened with astonishment and delight, so totally dif- 

 ferent, so vastly superior to the songs of all other birds, whether 

 native or foreign, to which I had ever listened. Notes surpassing 

 in melody, power, and variety those of both the Patagonian and 

 Buenos-Ayrean Mimi were rapidly poured forth in an unbroken 

 stream, till I marvelled that the throat of any bird could sustain so 

 powerful a song for so long a time. No sooner had this flow of 

 unfamiliar music ceased, than I heard issuing from the same spot, 

 the shrill, confused, and impetuous song of a small Patagonian Fly- 

 cather, the No. 11*; this was succeeded by the delightful matin 

 song of the small Grey Finch, No. 4f. 



After this I heard the trilling song of the Red Bird (Pyrocephalus 

 rubineus), with its silvery bell-like sound ; then followed the 

 leisurely uttered, mellow, delicious strain of the Yellow Cardinal 

 (Gubernatrix cristatella). These songs followed rapidly (for no 

 sooner did one end than the other began), and were all repeated with 

 miraculous fidelity. At first I imagined that all these birds that 

 had been imitated had actually been singing near me ; but when 

 the sweet vocalist resumed his own matchless song again, and I 

 discovered that all the strains that I had heard had issued from a 

 single throat, how much was my wonder and admiration for the 

 delightful performer increased ! I soon advanced near enough to 

 catch sight of the singer, and found it to be the Calandria blanca. 

 I found the pleasure of listening to him enhanced if he was at the 

 same time seen : so carried away with rapture at his own melody 

 seems the bird, so many and so beautiful are the gestures and 

 motions with which he accompanies the performance. He would 

 incessantly pass from bush to bush, sometimes soar above the 

 thicket for a hundred yards, with a flight as slow as that of a Heron, 

 and at times rise with a swift, wild flight, then slowly circle down 

 and sit on the summit of a bush, with the broad wings and tail 

 spread out, an object beautiful to see. What a pity it is that this 

 bird should frequent only a desert country, where so very few can 

 hear it. I cannot help saying that I consider it the finest singer in 

 America, though such an opinion may be thought extravagant ; 

 but it possesses to perfection the marvellous faculty of imitation, 

 that has given such celebrity to the Virginian Mocking-bird, and I 

 cannot believe that the Mocking-bird of the North, in its own song, 

 can surpass or even equal the Calandria blanca. This bird dis- 

 appears from the vicinity of the Carmen at the end of summer ; but 

 it probably does not go very far, as it by no means belongs to a 



* Stigmatura jlavocmerea (Burin.).— P. L. S. 

 t Diuca minor, Bp. — P. L. S. 



