86 
Barrows on Birds of the Lower Uruguay. 
[April 
a minute and a half or two minutes at a time, and even then the 
notes were disjointed. 
The nest is very bulky, placed within five or six feet of the 
ground, and composed of sticks, roots, and grass. The eggs, 
three or four in number, are greenish white, with dots and 
splashes of brown, both colors varying widely in precise tint in 
different specimens. Eggs were taken from October 28 until 
January 15, but doubtless many are laid by the first or middle of 
October. 
This is one of the few large birds regularly imposed upon by 
the Cowbird. In one case four of the latter’s eggs were found in 
a nest with but two of the owner’s. 
This species was not met with south of Buenos Aires, unless a 
single bird was seen near the Sierra de Currumalan. Although 
this specimen was not taken, there is little doubt that it was 
Mimus ftatagonicus, which replaces M. calandria in Patagonia. 
4. Polioptila dumicola (Vieill .). — An abundant bird at 
Concepcion among trees and bushes everywhere, many remaining 
through the entire year, though perhaps not as many were seen 
during the colder weather. The beautiful lichen-covered nests 
were frequently found during November ; always in plain sight 
but very difficult to see, and most often betrayed by the birds 
themselves. They were rarely placed more than five or six feet 
from the ground, — oftener only three or four, — and almost 
invariably contained three eggs, which in color and markings 
were precisely like those of P. ccerulea. 
5. Troglodytes platensis Bp. Tacuara or Tacuarita ; 
— probably so called from its fretting notes ( taques ). 
Abundant everywhere — in the towns as well as in the gloomi- 
est swamps and sandiest cactus patches, and equally abundant 
summer and winter. It nests, like its cousin T. aedon , in any 
cavity which takes its fancy. Probably two broods are reared 
each season, as many were nesting early in October, and fresh 
eggs were taken as late as January 3, at which time I took a set 
of seven from the hollow of a decayed stub which overhung the 
river. In nest, eggs, and song, this bird so nearly resembles T. 
aedon that anything more on these points is superfluous. From 
its sociable disposition (towards man at least) one is often sur- 
prised to find it in the most out-of-the-way places, as, for example, 
in the lonely gorges of the Sierra de la Ventana, where its rich 
song more than once gave me a pleasant surprise. 
