RUSH-LOVING SPINE-TAIL 205 
wheeling about each other, and uttering a sharp, 
trilling note. On a warm day in winter they are 
occasionally heard attempting to sing, the bird dart- 
ing up vertically into the air and pouring out with 
great energy a confused torrent of unmusical sounds. 
Their habits, so much less sedate and strikingly in 
contrast with those of most of the birds in this 
family, are no doubt due to the greater powers of 
flight possessed by Cinclodes. 
RUSH-LOVING SPINE-TAIL 
Phleocryptes melanops 
Above, forehead brown, crown blackish, broad superciliaries buffy 
white ; upper half of back black; marked with a few grey stripes ; 
lower back and rump, also sides of back and neck, light brown ; 
wings blackish, mottled with light chestnut on the coverts; and a 
broad band of the same colour occupying the basal half of the wing- 
feathers ; tail blackish, the two middle feathers brownish grey, the 
others slightly tipped with the same colour; beneath white, more or 
less tinged on the throat, flanks, and under tail-coverts with pale brown ; 
under wing-coverts fulvous ; length 5.8 inches, 
THIS is one of our few strictly migratory species in 
the family Dendrocolaptide. Probably it winters in 
South Brazil, as in the northern parts of the Argentine 
country it is said to be a summer visitor. On the 
pampas it appears in September, and all at once 
becomes very abundant in the rush-beds growing 
in the water, where alone it is found. The migration 
no doubt is very extensive, for in spring I found it 
