on Birds and their surroundings.



195



growing in cushions and patches. Fuchsias, with their graceful

slender branches full of little scarlet flowers, were particularly

abundant, and on many of the old beeches were bushes of a para¬

sitic plant with pale scarlet pipeflowers and pale green square leaves.

On an old tree that was partly decaying, were bushes of a kind of

bromilia with glorious scarlet centres ( Bromelia bicolor). Having

admired these and all the variety of beautiful plants which this part

of Chile offers in abundance, I heard the usual mocking laugh of

Pteroptochus rubecula. The bird that generally laughs at the in¬

truder and disappears. This particular bird however was of an

inquisitive disposition, and instead of disappearing it quietly sat in

a tangle of dead wood in a very conspicuous place and watched me

closely. I stopped to look at it, but it did not mind it in the least.

Pteroptochus rubecula is a pretty brown bird with yellow red breast

and eyebrows and intelligent big glittering black eyes. Little light

spots on the sides are an additional ornament. In shape, the bird

is between a robin and a wren, the tail being carried upwards. It is

a little person, that knows what it is about and takes great interest

in what happens in its domain. It is about double the size of our

own robin.


As I went on, a little brown black Wren, larger than our

own bird, and with not quite such an upright tail ( Scytalopus

magellanicus), crossed the road and disappeared in the jungle. After

a while the wood became thinner, and at a curve of the road began

to give way to bamboo bushes with open spaces between them.

Turning to the right the ground rose, and on an eminence clad with

grass stood the house and farm-buildings, all low constructions of

wood and sheet iron. I opened a gate in a wooden fence, entered an

enclosed space and rode to a door that stood ajar. After a while

somebody came forward and told me that the owner was absent, but

that his wife would soon be there, and asked us to alight. This we

did, leaving the horse to take care of itself as is usual in those parts.

The lady of the house having come, show r ed us the farm and grounds

in which I noticed the beautiful strong growth of the fruit trees,

and she told me that they had reclaimed all the land themselves, it

being a virgin forest all over when they took possession of it. When

she showed me her poultry yard, I asked if the foxes did not play



