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 dull-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 amongthem. Yet these sober-coloured tropical 
birds I have mentioned are not singers. 
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 slightly from European forms 
—the whistle of the Argentine blackbird is some- 
times mistaken by Englishmen for that of the 
smaller home bird. The mocking-birds form a 
group of the same family (Turdide), but with more 
highly-developed vocal powers. It is true that the 
tanagers, numbering about four hundred species, 
