Expedition to Tucuman and Salta. 419 
the use of a room &c. We unpacked the mules as soon as 
possible, and I took a walk after skinning the birds shot 
yesterday. The Sierras are barren, and, I imagine, something 
like Mendoza, very stony (all granite); but the people are 
too lazy to turn this to account, and prefer to live in mud 
ranchos. I shot some birds and saw many ; but the country 
here is evidently not so rich as on lower ground. The 
thermometer at dusk marked 51°, and a cold wind all the 
morning rendered my excursion not very pleasant. The 
principal things that strike a stranger here are the large 
cacti, some of which grow as high as thirty or forty feet, all 
armed with most formidable-looking spines. 
The country reminds me somewhat of a luxuriant Pata- 
gonia, the trees being large but scraggy, and the thorn-bushes 
and underwood not very thick. I took a walk in the morn- 
ing and found Crested Sparrow very common in flocks, one 
skinned; Humming-bird, one seen and skinned, no more 
seen. I believe this to be the species | wanted. A little 
dusky insect-eater, pretty common; one skinned. Parula 
pitiayumi yery common; one skinned. Black-headed Tit 
pretty common; one skinned. All these I found on the 
slopes of some low Sierras near the Rio Vipos; I also saw 
two more Buenos-Ayres birds, Sisopygis icterophrys and 
Elainea albescens, common. All the birds seen today may 
be considered Sierra birds, in distinction to those which 
frequent the more luxuriant woods and thickets. 
June 8. Took a walk, same direction as yesterday. Hum- 
ming-bird, long-tailed, quite common; young of the year 
have tails much shorter than the old ones of both sexes. 
Red-breasted Finch, male and female shot, pretty common. 
Reddish thicket-loving bird, pretty common, has an exceed- 
ingly loud and jarring note; one shot. Small Flycatcher, 
one with long tail, shot; pretty common in the thickets. 
Small Flycatcher, short-tailed small one, rare; one shot. 
Partridge, one skinned, erects crest sometimes. The weather 
is very cold, the thermometer this morning at 8 a.m. mark- 
ing 49°, a very unusual figure for this place, even in winter. 
I will just mention now that Tucuman possesses in Sefor 
ZF 
