158 Idle Days in Patagonia. 
“‘ But if a choir of singers were selected in the Old 
World, and compared with one of equal number 
gathered in Paraguay, I am not sure which would 
win the victory.” Of the house-wren of La Plata 
(Troglodytes furvus), Azara says that its song is 
‘in style comparable to that of the nightingale, 
although its phrases are not so delicate and expres- 
sive; nevertheless I count it among the first 
singers.” This opinion (with Daines Barrington’s 
misleading table in my mind) made me doubt the 
correctness of his judgment, or memory, the wren in 
question being an exceedingly cheerful singer ; but 
when I came to hear the nightingale, about whose 
song I had formed so false an idea, it seemed to me 
that Azara was not far out. Nothing here surprised 
me more than the song of the British wren—a 
current of sharp high unshaded notes, so utterly 
different to the brilliant joyous and varied lyric of 
his near relation in that distant land. 
The melodious wren family counts many genera, 
rich in species, throughout the Neotropical region: 
and just as in that continent the thrushes have 
developed a more varied and beautiful music in the 
mocking-birds, so it has been with this family in 
such genera as Thyothorus and Cyphorhinus, which 
include the celebrated flute-birds and organ-birds of 
tropical South America. D’Orbigny, in the Voyage 
dans ’ Amérique Méridionale, speaks rapturously of 
one of these wrens, perched on a bough overhanging 
the torrent, where its rich melodious voice seemed 
in strange contrast to the melancholy aspect of its 
