132 



Barrows on Birds of the Lozver Uruguay. [July 



year had been spent at Conception that I found this species 

 there. Possibly it had been overlooked, as all the specimens 

 subsequently taken near this place were found in cultivated 

 o-round, several being shot while perched on sheaves of wheat 

 and in full song. This was at Christmas time, 1880. Two 

 months later we found it abundant in similar places near Bahia 

 Blanca, as well as on the grassy slopes at the foot of the Sierra 

 de la Ventana. At all these places it was breeding, but nothing 

 was learned of its nest or eggs. 



34. Embernagra platensis {Gm.). — A common resident at 

 Concepcion, where it breeds. Also numerous in suitable locali- 

 ties at all other points visited. It prefers damp ground with or 

 without bushes, and where the plumed pampas-grass abounds 

 the bird delights to sit swaying on its feathery tips, chanting his 

 weak but well-meaning song. The nest is placed near or on the 

 o-round and contains three white eggs with a very few dark flecks 

 at their larger ends. Sets were taken at Concepcion, October 

 12 and December 7, and at Azul, January 28, indicating a second 

 and perhaps a third brood. 



35. Chrysomitris barbata {MoL). ' Jilguero (Gold- 

 finch). — I first made the acquaintance of this sprightly little 

 songster in the markets and bird-stores of Buenos Aires where 

 they are kept by hundreds as cage-birds. Afterwards I found 

 them m'ore or less abundant at all points visited. Like our 

 common Yellowbirds, they are almost always in flocks, always 

 restless, and able to sing well when they feel like it. Nothing 

 was learned of their nesting habits. 



' 36. Sycalis luteola (5^(3;r;«.). Misxo or Mixxo. (Mixed, 

 perhaps in allusion to the character of the flocks.). — Abundant 

 everywhere in immense flocks, often of many thousand individ- 

 uals, and largest in winter, when they are shot by the hundred 

 and sold in the markets of Buenos Aires. Other species often 

 help to swell the size of these flocks, Chrysomitris perhaps 

 most often, and then ZonotricJiia. Spermophila^ and even An- 

 thus correndera. Nests were found during November, Decem- 

 ber, and January, and probably many breed during October. 

 The nest is very variable in size, material and location. Probably 

 it is oftenest placed on the ground, but I have taken eggs from 

 a well-built nest of the Oven Bird {I^iirnarizis) ten feet from 

 the ground, and was told by natives that the bird often nests in 



