At Last, Patagonia / 9 
were moreabundant. The dense, stiff, dark-coloured 
foliage of these bushes give them a strange appear- 
ance on the pale sundried plains, as of black rocks 
of numberless fantastic forms scattered over the 
greyish-yellow ground. No large fowls were seen; 
small birds were, however, very abundant, gladden- 
ing the parched wilderness with their minstrelsy. 
Most noteworthy among the true songsters were 
the Patagonian mocking bird and four or five 
finches, two of them new to me. Here I first made 
the acquaintance ofa singular and very pretty bird 
—the red-breasted plant-cutter, a finch too, but 
only in appearance. It is a sedentary bird and sits 
conspicuously on the topmost twig, displaying its 
ruddy under plumage; occasionally emitting, by 
way of song, notes that resemble the faint bleatings 
of a kid, and, when disturbed, passing from bush to 
bush by a series of jerks, the wings producing a 
loud humming sound. Most numerous, and sur- 
passing all others in interest, were the omnipresent 
Dendrocolaptine bird, or wood-hewers, or tree- 
creepers as they are sometimes called—feeble flyers, 
in uniform sober brown plumage; restless in their 
habits and loquacious, with shrill and piercing, or 
clear resonant voices. One terrestrial species, with 
a sandy-brown plumage, Upucerthia dumetoria, 
raced along before us on the ground, in appearance 
a stout miniature ibis with very short legs and 
exaggerated beak. LHvery bush had its little colony 
of brown gleaners, small birds of the genus Synal- 
laxis, moving restlessly about among the leaves, 
