12 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
the eye, which is orange-red and not olive-green. 
He says that it is a rare species, possessing no melo- 
dious notes, which proves at once that he never heard 
it sing. D’Orbigny obtained it in Bolivia, Bridges in 
Mendoza, and more recently it has been found by 
collectors in various parts of the Argentine country, 
even in Buenos Ayres, where, however, it is probably 
only an occasional visitor. But they have told us 
nothing of its song and of its miraculous mocking- 
powers. For my part I can think of no other way to 
describe the surpassing excellence of its melody, 
which delights the soul beyond all other bird-music, 
than by saying that this bird is among song-birds 
like the diamond among stones, which in its many- 
coloured splendour represents and exceeds the special 
beauty of every other gem, 
I met with this species on the Rio Negro in Pata- 
gonia; it was there called Calandria blanca, a name 
not strictly accurate, since the bird is not all white, 
but certainly better than Azara’s strange invention 
of “* Lark with three tails.” 
The bird was not common in Patagonia, and its 
only language was a very loud harsh startled note, 
resembling that of the Mimus calandria; but it was 
past the love-season when I first met with it, and 
the natives all assured me that it possessed a very 
wonderful song, surpassing the songs of all other 
birds ; also that it had the faculty of imitating other 
species. In manners and appearance it struck me as 
being utterly unlike a Mimus; in its flight and in 
the .conspicuous white and black of the wings and 
