236 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
and on this account named it the Common Climber, 
Trepador comin. In Buenos Ayres it is a summer 
visitant, appearing at the end of September. It is a 
solitary bird, never seen away from the woods, and 
invariably utters a loud melancholy cry when passing 
from one tree to another. It always alights on the 
trunk close to the ground, clinging to the bark in a 
vertical position, supported by the tail, and with 
head thrown far back in order to give free play to 
the extremely long beak. Having thus alighted, it 
progresses upwards by short hops, exploring the 
crevices in the wood for small insects, until it reaches 
the branches, when it flies off to the next tree. It 
is in fact a Tree-creeper in its manner of seeking 
its food. 
RED-CAPPED BUSH-BIRD 
Thamnophilus ruficapillus 
Above olive-brown tinged with rufous ; lores yellowish-white ; super- 
ciliaries and sides of head whitish grey; quills olive-brown ; tail black, 
the rectrices, except the middle pair, tipped and broadly spotted on 
the inner webs with white ; beneath whitish grey, every feather trans- 
versely barred with black; length 6.2 inches. Female like the male 
except that the tail is rufous brown and the markings beneath scarcely 
perceptible. 
THE Red-capped Bush-bird, or Bush-lover, is one 
of four species of its genus, which range as far south 
as the Argentine country and are the only repre- 
sentatives in it of the Family Formicaride or Ant- 
