TRUPIALIS MILITARIS 57 



improve, a flock came and perched quite close all round me- — 

 some on bushes, some on the ground — and remamed while I 

 was there, singing lustily. 



Principally this Starling seeks its subsistence in moist, 

 spongy ground. LarvsB and mature insects are its food. 



TRUPIALIS MILITARIS (Linn^us) 



SanSOnnet des lies MalOUineS, Pemety, Voy. lies Malomnes, 



ii, 569, pi. vii, 1769. 

 SturnUS militariS, Linvcens, Mantissa, p. 527, 1771. 



iStourneau des Terres Magellaniques, Bt'^ffon, Hist. Nat. Ois., 



iii, p. 220, pi. cxiii, 1774. 

 Sturnella militariS, Gotdd and Darwin, Voy. "Beagle," Birds, p. 110, 



1841; Cassin, U.S. Sxpl Exp., ii, p. 179, pi. xvi, 1855; Abbott, Ibis, 



p. 153, 1861 ; Durnford, Ibis, p. 33, 1877, p. 394, 1878. 

 Trupialis militaris, Sclater, Gat. Birds Brit. Mus., xi, p. 356, 1886 ; 



Sclater and Hudson, Argentine Orn., i, p. 104, 1888 ; Oustalet, Miss. Sci. 



Cap Horn, Ois., p. 103, 1891. 



Habitat — Chili, Patagonia, and Tierra del Fuego ; tlie Falkland Islands. 



^, San Sebastian Settlement, 27th Oct. ; (^ , 30th Oct., 1904. 

 Iris —brown ; bill — horn colour ; legs and feet — light grey. 



The Military Starling with its brilliant scarlet breast is one 

 of the few birds specially noticed by Pernety in the Falkland 

 Islands in 1764. He alludes to it as " une espece de 

 San sonnet, le dessous de cou & le ventre d'un tres beau rouge, 

 qui tient cependant un pen de la couleur de feu," and gives 

 a woodcut of the bird itself. 



Hitherto, Punta Arenas appears to have been the most 

 southerly point of its known range. 



Darwin records it from 31° S. on the east coast of the 

 mainland to the Falkland Islands, and from the Strait of 

 Magellan up the west coast as far as Lima, from which it seems 

 he did not note any difference between this and the more 

 northerly form, T. defilippi — distinguishable by smaller size, and 

 having the under wing coverts black instead of white. 



