Notes from a Traveler in the Tropics 



337 



along streams or in drainage areas, assumes some luxuriance. Both eucalyptus 

 and poplars have been successfully introduced and are sufficiently abundant to 

 form a marked feature of the landscape of central Chile. 



My duties for the Red Cross left small time for field excursions about either 

 Valparaiso or Santiago, nor was the season a favorable one for the study of 

 birds. I can therefore give a more adequate sketch of the principal character- 

 istics of the bird-life of central Chile by relating briefly certain observations 

 made in the vicinity of Santiago in the early spring (August 23-25) of 1916. 



At this season there was a yellow-green veil over the willows, about springy 

 places the grass was 

 emerald,' and ^^^ peach 

 trees were beginning to 

 bloom. Frogs croaked 

 in the marshes, great 

 flocks of Goldfinches 

 made the poplars vocal, 

 a small Woodpecker 

 called peek, almost ex- 

 actly like our Downy, 

 and rolled his drum. 

 Swallows gurgled, and 

 from the beds of old * 

 cat- tails a Yellow- 

 shouldered Blackbird 

 uttered a call - note 

 strangely suggestive of ;/ « 



that of his far-away 

 red-shouldered cousin. 

 In fact, both eye and ear were reminded, by many obvious and other more 

 subtle influences, of spring in the North Temperate Zone. 



The Red-breasted Trupials (Trupialis militaris) passed in straggling flocks 

 like Robins returning to their roost, and their flight-note recalled that of a 

 Robin, but their flight-song was more like that of a Meadowlark. One did not 

 often get a view of their brightly colored breast, but when seen it flashed like a 

 railway signal. 



With the more familiar sights and sounds there were mingled others which 

 had no place in one's memory of a spring at the North. 



Everywhere the gray Diuca Finches {Diuca diuca) were abundant. While 

 their song bears a slight resemblance to that of our Rose-breasted Grosbeak, 

 the birds themselves are quite unlike. The Diuca is doubtless the most abun- 

 dant of Chilean land-birds. One sees it everywhere, along the roadsides, on 

 telegraph wires, in gardens, in the bush-covered foothills, in cages and in the 

 markets, for it is valued both as a pet and as a source of food. There is appar- 



EL TURCO 



