Bird Music in South America. 155 



while the sober-coloured birds of temperate regions, 

 especially of Europe, have the gift of melody ; that 

 sweet notes are heard in England, and piercing cries 

 and grating screams within the tropics. As a fact 

 the duU-plumaged species in the hot regions greatly 

 outnumber those that are gaily-coloured. To 

 mention only two South American passerine fami- 

 lies, the woodhewers and ant-birds, numbering 

 together nearly five hundred species, or as many as 

 all the species of birds in Europe, are with scarcely 

 an exception sober-coloured. The melodious gold- 

 finch, yellow bunting, linnet, blue tit, chaffinch, and 

 yellow wagtail, would look very gay and conspicu- 

 ous among them. Yet these sober-coloured tropical 

 birds I have mentioned are not siugers. 



It must also be borne in mind that South America 

 embraces a great variety of climates ; that all the 

 vast region, which comprises Chili, the southern 

 half of Argentina, and Patagonia, is in the temperate 

 zone. Also, that a large proportion of the South 

 American songsters belong to families that are 

 universal, in which all the finest voices of Europe 

 are included — thrushes, warblers, wrens, larks, 

 finches. The true thrushes are well represented, 

 and some differ but shghtly from European forms 

 — the whistle of the Argentine blackbird is some- 

 times mistaken by Euglishmea for that of the 

 smaller home bird. The mocking-birds form a 

 group of the same family (Turdidse), but with more 

 highly-developed vocal powers. It is true that the 

 tanagers, numbering about four hundred species. 



