62 BIRDS OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO 



nous parurent analogues k celles des Moteux : elle relevait la 

 queue chaque fois qu'elle se posait et qu'elle s'envolait. Comme 

 il n'y a pas de buissons dans le lieu qu'elle habite, elle se perche 

 sur les points culminans, tout en etant bien plus marcheuse que 

 les esp^ces precedentes, dont pourtant elle a le vol et les allures." 



Darwin's note at once serves to identify it : — " It feeds 

 in small flocks, often mingled with the Tcferi] Plovers, 

 and other birds on the ground. Its manner of flight and 

 general appearance never failed to call to my recollection our 

 cunning Fieldfares {Tardus pilaris)^ and I may observe that 

 its plumage (in accordance v/ith these habits) is difl^erent 

 from that of the rest of the genus. I opened the stomachs 

 of some specimens killed at Maldonado, and found in them 

 seeds and ants. At Bahia Blanca I saw these birds catching 

 on the wing large stercovorous coleoptera ; in this respect 

 it follows the habits, although in most others it differs from 

 those of the rest of its tribe." 



Durnford says of it in the Province of Buenos Ayres : — 

 " A winter visitor, but rare. In the air its long, pointed, almost 

 Plover-like wing, and on the ground its bold upright position 

 are sufficient to establish its identity. Its habits seem generally 

 like those of the other ToBnioptercB ; and it is always in a 

 restless state, flitting from a clod of earth to the top of a 

 thistle, or making a sudden dart at some passing insect. The 

 stomach of the one I shot contained a large hairy caterpillar 

 and some remains of coleoptera." 



Durnford often found it consorting with Oreoi^hilus 

 rujicoUis. 



The stomach of my specimen contained coleoptera. 



TiENIOPTERA PYROPE (Kittlitz) 



MuSCicapa pyrope, Kittlitz, Mem. I'Acad. St. Petersb., i, p. 191, 

 pi. X, 1831. 



