Barrows on Birds of the Lower Uruguay. 
83 
j] 1883.] 
1 place most of the observations recorded here were made, and 
unless otherwise stated it will be understood that all notes refer 
■ to observations made at Concepcion. 
The whole number of species taken here was rather less than 
two hundred, but allowance must be made for the fact that only 
a small part of the time spent here could be given to collecting, 
! and that not unfrequently entire weeks passed without any oppor- 
tunity occurring for so much as an hour’s tramp outside the town. 
During his entire stay here the writer was connected with the 
Colegio Nacional, and it so happened that the times of greatest 
activity at this institution usually coincided with those periods of 
increased activity among the birds — the vernal migrations and 
the breeding seasons. 
Excursions were made, it is true, to many points from ten to 
thirty miles from the town, but these were not often possible, and 
observations in the main were confined to the country lying di- 
rectly about the town. 
Concepcion lies in about 32J degrees south latitude, and the 
range of temperature is from ioo° Fahr. in January and Feb- 
ruary (only observed on two or three occasions) to 38° or 40° in 
May and June. Yet heavy frosts frequently occur during these 
two latter months and April, while a change of wind to the north 
may, even in mid-winter, make the weather oppressively hot dur- 
ing the day. 
The region about Concepcion shows considerable diversity of 
surface, but no hills, and no heavy woods of any extent. Rolling 
grass-land or prairie alternates with cultivated farm or sterile 
sand-waste where only the dwarf acacia and spiny cactus seem 
to thrive. Wherever a stream is struggling for existence a few 
trees and bushes may be found extending in mute sympathy their 
scanty foliage, and if we follow such a stream till it emerges into 
the flood-plain of the river we may find the remains of what were 
once goodly forests of swamp-loving trees — now decimated by 
the charcoal-burners in their efforts to meet the demands for fuel 
of a land practically without mineral coal and in large measure 
treeless. 
By no means all this flood-plain is wooded, and while unmo- 
lested tracts of swamp forest still exist, they are yearly lessening 
in number and extent. And there are vast treeless marshes also 
where water-birds and mammals have things all their own way 
