2 Mr. E. Gibson on the Ornithology of 
throwing a twisted piece of fencing-wire into their midst. 
In the morning the flocks generally adopt a line which takes 
them over several of our woods, where they alight (asif tired 
and dubious of their way) while they chatter among them- 
selves for a few minutes, and then take to flight again, some- 
times following the calls of another passing flock, or induce 
the latter to settle beside them and share the consultation. 
In the evening again they fly high, and rarely alight. 
Now the direction all these birds take is towards the rim- 
cones, and though I have not actually found them feeding 
there ; the contents of various crops examined have invariably 
proved to be vegetable, apparently the inner stems or young 
shoots of some esparto or other grass (“ shoots or buds of some 
plant or grass,” my notes say, ‘“‘ white, tender, about } inch 
long, and slender ”’). This, however, does not quite agree with 
what Mr. Durnford found to be their food in the Chuput 
valley, whence, in November, he writes, “They fed on the 
young leaves of a species of thorn, the stomach of one shot 
on the 24th November being crammed with these;” and 
again, from Baradero, in the north of this province, that 
they feed “ chiefly on buds and the seed of sena-sena, a spe- 
cies of Acacia, very common here.” 
None of these visiting our district pass the night here ; and 
the nearest breeding-locality is, I suppose, the cliffs or bar- 
rancas (hence the name “ Barranquero”’) of the arroyos on 
this side of the Sierras de Tandil. 
They are not very shy (though more so than Bolborhynchus 
monachus), and frequently alight on the corrales and trees in 
the immediate vicinity of houses. Indeed I have been told 
that they are rather partial to the roofs of ranchos in some 
districts, where, in the early morning, they make havoc with 
the thatch, and rouse the inmates with their noise. 
The flight is powerful and rapid, but rather wavering, as 
if the lengthy tail were inadequate to the duty of keeping its 
owner steady. 
Italians and other foreigners shoot them for the pot; but 
I fancy that, however savoury, C. patagonus is rather a 
tough morsel. 
