Cape San Antonio, Buenos Ayres. 9 
it is exactly reversed. Mr. Durnford writes, “‘ A few remain 
with us all the winter, but the majority leave after the breed- 
ing-time.” 
Here it is gregarious, the flocks ranging up to twenty in 
number. These frequent the woods and, occasionally, the 
swamps. 
In the winter mornings, just at sunrise, one frequently 
surprises them in the woods, enjoying the grateful warmth 
of the sun in a rather peculiar fashion: they all have their 
backs to it, and drop the wings in such a way as to expose 
that sparsely-feathered part to the heat. In roosting, again, 
they crowd together in a row on some horizontal branch in 
a well-sheltered corner, facing different ways in exactly alter- 
nate order; so that the arrangement of the drooping tails 
makes the group look rather puzzling at first, till one be- 
comes acquainted with the habit. 
In flight it is slow and very feeble, and on alighting on a 
tree or, more noticeably, on the ground, the long tail is like 
to make its owner perform an involuntary somersault. 
The general cry is a harsh scream, with which all intruders 
are greeted; but it has also a rarer and much more musical 
note, in the utterance of which it is so jealous that I could 
never yet get a glimpse of the bird in order to see the way 
in which it is produced. It consists of a regular gamut, 
beginning at the high note, and descending with great fidelity 
through four or five others, till it dies away. The notes are 
equally regular in time and duration, and most charmingly 
plaintive and musical in sound. 
Natives have told me that young birds, taken from the 
nest, can be taught to speak, which I do not consider unlikely, 
from the strange construction of the tongue. 
As I said, any intruder is received with the harsher lan- 
guage ; and the whole flock will congregate on the surround- 
ing trees (the summits of which are generally preferred) 
within a few yards of him. 
Guira piririgua, as may have been gathered from the fore- 
going notes, is by no means shy, and not only may be closely 
approached in the woods, but ventures of its own accord 
