THE



201



Avicultural Magazine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



Third Series .— Vol. VI.—No. 7.- —All rights reserved. MAY, 1915.



PATAGONIAN PLOVERS AND

TRUMPETER BIRDS.


By Mrs. Gregory.


In the Spring of last year a friend living in Buenos Ayres

sent me over a pair of Patagonian Lapwings, called in their native

land “ Teru-Teru,” from their shrill cry, which is supposed to be

like the word. Mr. Hudson describes these birds in his books on

Patagonia, and in a letter from him, which I received last year, he

tells me they are great favourites of his, and that he has “ a hundred

memories of their curious ways.” He also told me he could not

walk anywhere at any hour on the plains without having a number

rising up and wheeling about his head, making a great outcry. He

added he remembered an English lady saying she liked the country

very well, but the Teru-Teru spoilt her pleasure. She could never

get away from them. They were always deafening her with their

angry screams, and darting at her head with their spurs, but Mr.

Hudson thinks it is different now, as the bird exterminators have

been as busy in Buenos Ayres as in most places.


Well, I met my birds at Southampton docks, and received them

from the cook on one of the Royal Mail boats. They did not

seem very bold then ; their feathers were draggled and they looked

very miserable. I got them home quickly and put them into a large

aviary and I thought they would never stop drinking from the deep

pan of fresh water, so thirsty were they. Next day I let them loose

in the garden, and it was pretty to see their delight and the way

they ran over the lawn tapping for worms to come out. They



