VII RIO PARANA 147 



these facts I suspect that the Rhynchops generally fishes by 

 night, at which time many of the lower animals come most 

 abundantly to the surface. M. Lesson states that he has seen 

 these birds opening the shells of the mactrae buried in the sand- 

 banks on the coast of Chile : from their weak bills, with the 

 lower mandible so much projecting, their short legs and long 

 wings, it is very improbable that this can be a general habit. 



In our course down the Parana, I observed only three other 

 birds, whose habits are worth mentioning. One is a small 

 kingfisher (Ceryle Americana) ; it has a longer tail than the 

 European species, and hence does not sit in so stiff and upright 

 a position. Its flight also, instead of being direct and rapid, 

 like the course of an arrow, is weak and undulatory, as among 

 the soft-billed birds. It utters a low note, like the clicking 

 together of two small stones. A small green parrot (Conurus 

 murinus), with a gray breast, appears to prefer the tall trees on 

 the islands to any other situation for its building- place. A 

 number of nests are placed so close together as to form one 

 great mass of sticks. These parrots always live in flocks, and 

 commit great ravages on the corn-fields. I was told that near 

 Colonia 2500 were killed in the course of one year. A bird 

 with a forked tail, terminated by two long feathers (Tyrannus 

 savana), and named by the Spaniards scissor- tail, is very 

 common near Buenos Ayres : it commonly sits on a branch of 

 the ombu tree, near a house, and thence takes a short flight in 

 pursuit of insects, and returns to the same spot. When on the 

 wing it presents in its manner of flight and general appearance 

 a caricature-likeness of the common swallow. It has the power 

 of turning very shortly in the air, and in so doing opens and 

 shuts its tail, sometimes in a horizontal or lateral and some- 

 times in a vertical direction, just like a pair of scissors. 



October i6th. — Some leagues below Rozario, the western 

 shore of the Parana is bounded by perpendicular cliffs, which 

 extend in a long line to below San Nicolas ; hence it more 

 resembles a sea-coast than that of a fresh-water river. It is a 

 great drawback to the scenery of the Parana, that, from the soft 

 nature of its banks, the water is very muddy. The Uruguay, 

 flowing through a granitic country, is much clearer ; and where 

 the two channels unite at the head of the Plata, the waters may 

 for a long distance be distinguished by their black and red 



