Oct. 1833. 



ORNITnOLf)GY. 



163 



and rapid, like the course of an arrow, is weak and undu- 

 latory, as among the soft-billed birds. It utters a low note, 

 like the clicking together of two small stones. A small 

 green parrot,* with a gray breast, appears to prefer the tall 

 trees on the islands, to any other situation, for its building- 

 place. A number of nests are placed so close together, as 

 to form one great mass of sticks. These parrots always 

 live in flocks, and commit great ravages on the corn- 

 fields. I was told, that near Colonia 2500 were killed in 

 the course of one year. A bird {Milvulus forficatus) 

 with a forked tail, terminated by two long feathers, and 

 named by the Spaniards scissor-tail, is very common near 

 Buenos Ayres. It commonly sits on a branch of the omba 

 tree, near the house, and thence takes a short flight in pur- 

 suit of insects, and returns to the same spot. When 

 on the wing, it presents, in its manner of flight and 

 general appearance, a caricature-likeness of the common 

 swallow. It has the power in the air of turning very 

 shortly, and in so doing, opens and shuts its tail, sometimes 

 in a horizontal or lateral, and sometimes in a vertical 

 direction, just like a pair of scissors. In structure, this bird 

 is a true tyrant-flycatcher, although in its habits certainly 

 allied to the swallows. 



October 16th. — Some leagues above Rozario the western 

 shore was bounded by perpendicular cliff's, which extended 

 in a long line to below San Nicholas. Hence the coast more 

 resembled that of the sea, than that of a fresh-water river. 

 It is a great drawback to the scenery of the Parana, that, 

 from the soft nature of its banks, the water is very muddy. 

 The Uruguay, flowing through a granitic country, is much 

 clearer ; and I am told, that where the two channels unite at 

 the head of the Plata, the waters may for a long distance be 

 distinguished by their black and red colours. In the even- 

 ing, the wind not being quite fair, as usual we immediately 

 moored, and the next day, as it blew rather freshlv, though 



* Lajeune Veuve of Azara. Latham Gen. Hist., vol. ii., p. 192. 



M 2 



