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



it is unnecessary to shoot them, as any number can be killed with a 

 long whip or stick. This species has two distinct songs or calls, 

 pleasing to the ear, and heard all the year round : one is a succes- 

 sion of twenty or thirty short, impressive notes of great compass, 

 and ended by half a dozen rapidly uttered notes, beginning loud, 

 and sinking lower till they cease ; the other call is a soft continuous 

 trill, appearing to swell mysteriously on the air ; for the hearer 

 cannot tell whence it proceeds ; it lasts several seconds, then seems 

 gradually to die away. 



The female lays five or six eggs, in colour like those of Perdiz 

 grande. The valley of the Rio Negro, usually nine or ten miles in 

 width, is a flat plain, resembling the Buenos-Ayrean Pampa ; and 

 wherever long grasses and reeds abound the call-note of the Perdiz 

 comun is heard winter and summer ; but outside of the valley I have 

 never met with it. 



The Perdiz chico is nowhere very numerous, but seems thinly 

 and equally distributed everywhere on the high bush-covered table- 

 lands, and, like the Martineta, is partial to places abounding in 

 thin scrub. They have a shy disposition, and, when approached, 

 spring up and run away with the same appearance of terror exhi- 

 bited by the Martineta. Sometimes, when running, they utter low 

 whistling notes like the Perdiz comun ; their flight is higher, and 

 produces far less sound than that of the Perdiz comun. They have 

 but one call-note — a succession of short notes, like those of the 

 other species, but without the quick concluding notes ; this call is 

 only heard in the breeding-season. Its eggs are like those of the 

 Pampa bird. It is never found in the moist, grassy places fre- 

 quented by the Perdiz comun. 



[As an Appendix to Mr. Hudson's interesting notes I think it 

 will be of use to give a list of the species of which he has sent spe- 

 cimens to me from the Rio Negro, arranged in systematic order. 

 These are : — 



