Vili BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
with, nor in all the years of my life in the pampas 
did I ever have the happiness to meet with anyone 
to share my interest in the wild bird life of the 
country I was born in. 
So far the book and its history. It remains to add 
something concerning its subject—the character of 
the bird life of the district where my observations 
were made. It is like that of South America generally, 
but differs in the almost total absence of tropical 
forms, such as Trogons, Toucans, Puff-birds, Mot- 
mots, Todies, Jacamars, and Barbets. 
_ The bird world has been divided by Ornithologists 
into several geographical regions, and undoubtedly 
birds differ in widely-separated portions of the earth 
and, like the races of men, have the stamp of their 
country or continent on them. But the bird is a 
volatile being, and vast numbers refuse to belong to 
any particular region. Some are migratory, and 
travel to distant lands outside of the region assigned 
to them, the return journey in many cases covering 
a distance of 12,000 miles. That a bird should have 
its breeding and feeding, or summer and winter 
areas, 6,000 miles apart, seems almost incredible. 
Thus, in South America, which is called the Neo- 
tropical Region, there are numerous species that 
come from the adjoining region of North America, 
and among these are several species which breed 
in the arctic regions as high as latitude eighty to 
eighty-three or four degrees, yet after breeding fly 
south as far as the southern extremity of Patagonia. 
Besides the strict migrants there are many birds 
