338 Bird - Lore 



ently no law protecting the Diuca, and the Italian element in the Chilean 

 population traps it, as well as other small birds, by thousands. A visit to the 

 Santiago market showed strings of Goldlinches, White-throats, Diucas, and 

 Thrushes which, plucked, were sold for about thirty cents a dozen. The Diuca 

 however, is apparently too well adapted to its environment to be perceptibly 

 diminished in numbers by the activities of market hunters. 



At Apoquindo, in the foothills of the Andes, about nine miles east of Santi- 

 ago, I found more characteristic features of Chilean bird-life. Here there was 

 no cultivation and the scrubby vegetation occupied the slopes and barrancas. 

 The ground was white with frost each morning, and the air was fresh and 

 invigorating. When the sun climbed from behind the Cordillera there was a 

 ringing chorus of spring song. The ever-present White-throats contributed 

 their sweet, plaintive notes; Mockingbirds called sharply, chucker -chuck, 

 chucker-chuck, and whistled shortly; there were Trupials, Diucas, and Swallows, 

 while, from the dense scrubby growth which covered the slopes of the foothills, 

 there came a series of thrilling calls, loud and striking in character. Some were 

 wholly unlike anything I had ever heard before; others suggested notes with 

 which I was familiar. They came from every side, often so near as to be start- 

 ling. At times six or eight birds called at once but the most careful stalking 

 failed to reveal the callers. Taking a position which commanded a view of my 

 surroundings, I sat down and carefully watched every opening in the vegeta- 

 tion for a view of the unseen singers. It was not long before a bird about the 

 size of a Quail, like a mysterious little gnome, hopped up on a rock about forty 

 yards distant and uttered one of the singular calls which had so excited my 

 curiosity. He called only once or twice, when, apparently alarmed, he jumped 

 to the earth, and, with long tail erect, ran down the hillside with astonishing 

 rapidity, sailed across a gully and disappeared. I recognized it as El Turco, a 

 species of the genus Hylactes found only in central Chile. Later, I discovered 

 that El Turco was assisted by the Tapacola {Pteroptochus alhicollis) in producing 

 the remarkable series of calls which gave so strange a character to the morning 

 chorus. Without always being able to attribute each call to its author, I find 

 the following descriptions entered in my notebook: 



1. A hoarse how-wow-wow-wow-wow, becoming hoarser on the final notes, 

 and exactly like the bark of a distant dog. Previous authors, I find, state that 

 this call is produced by Hylactes. 



2. A sharp, high, sudden marmot-like whistle, such as one utters to attract 

 attention. 



3. A liquid whit-whit-whit-whit many times repeated. 



4. A rich, flute-like, diminishing whistle strongly suggestive of the soul- 

 stirring calls of the great Goatsucker (Nyctibius) . 



5. A Cuckoo-like call which may be the dove-like notes ascribed to the 

 Tapacola. 



6. A call like that of a Guinea Hen: 



