Notes from a Traveler in the Tropics 



159 



singularly tender, appealing whistles form its theme, and they are sometimes 

 followed by a short trill or twitter. It strongly suggests in tone and form the 

 song of the White-crowned Sparrow, and one need only be famihar with the 

 notes of that bird to find an immediate place in his affections for its distant 

 South American relative. 



The resemblance is so close that, after years of association, the song of the 

 more southern bird still awakens recollections of a camp in the Sierras, near 

 Lake Tahoe, where the plaintive notes of the White-crown were among the 

 most frequently heard bird- voices. 



We reached Lima in mid-November, as spring was passing into summer, 

 and never, it seems to me, have I heard the White-throat sing more sweetly. 



Another half -familiar and 

 common bird-song is that of the ' 

 House Wren. It is clearly dif- 

 ferent from that of our bird and 

 still sufficiently like it to awaken 

 at once a suspicion of its author's 

 identity. In spite of its small 

 size, the House Wren is doubt- 

 less the most widely distributed 

 of American birds. Few favor- 

 able localities (except in the 

 West Indies) from Tierra del 

 Fuego to Canada are without it, 

 and everywhere it shows an 

 evident fondness for our society 

 and proclaims its presence by 

 voice and manners. In ornitho- 

 logical works it appears under 

 a variety of scientific names; but this, to paraphrase Thoreau, is one of the 

 instances where, if names were invented to conceal facts, zoological nomen- 

 clature is a great improvement on a bad invention! Within certain rather 

 narrow limits it varies locally in color and size, and many well-marked geo- 

 graphical races may be recognized in its surprisingly extended range; but they 

 should not let us lose sight of the fact that whether we call them species or sub- 

 species, they are all representatives of the House Wren. 



In the larger parks and gardens there were Ground Doves and numbers of 

 large Pigeons, whose sonorous calls echoed through the groves of eucalyptus 

 and araucaria. The attractive zoological garden contains but a meager repre- 

 sentation of Peru's rich avifauna, and a self-invited group of Anis, which were 

 constructing a large nest in a small tree bordering one of the walks, formed a 

 more interesting ornithological exhibit than any the directors had provided. 



The Rirnac River, on which Lima is situated, runs throughout the year and 



WHITE-THROATED SONG SPARROW 



