1 8S3 . ] Barrows 071 Birds of the Lower Uruguay. I 35 
breed. About a dozen pairs nested near each other on low 
bushes in a very wet marsh. The nests were rather bulky, 
made of weed stalks, grass, etc., and contained three or four 
eggs each, white spotted with brown. The eggs were laid about 
the third week in December, and with them were found many 
Cowbird’s eggs. 
Late in March, 1881, we found this species in large flocks on 
the Pigue, and it was a beautiful sight to see a hundred or more 
fluttering about among the snowy plumes of the pampas grass 
and displaying their rich black and yellow dress. Unlike most 
other birds obtained at that time, their plumage seemed nearly 
as bright and fresh as in summer. 
43 . Amblyrhamphus holosericeus ( Scop . ) . — F ound rather 
sparingly at Concepcion, but resident through the year and 
breeds. The birds are found singly, or at most in pairs, frequent 
swamps and marshy ground, and are remarkable for their clear, 
penetrating, bell-like call, which may be heard at least half a 
mile, yet sounds hardly louder when heard at a distance of a 
dozen yards. The feathers of the head, neck, and tibiae are of 
the most brilliant scarlet, while the rest of the bird is lustrous 
black. The sexes are alike in size and color, and a young female 
only a day or two from the nest showed many red touches about 
the head. Of the nest and eggs I am ignorant ; the young bird 
just mentioned was taken December 24, 1880. 
44. Pseudoleistes virescens {Vie ill.). Pecho-ama- 
rillo (Yellow-breast). — No bird of the family is better 
known to the average Argentine than the Pecho-amarillo. Every 
rush-bordered pool or stream and every acre of long, coarse grass 
has its colony of these birds, and in the breeding season they go 
back and forth in troops, laden with building materials and 
apparently as unmindful of man and beast as the grass amongst 
which their nests are built. Some nests were begun as early as 
the middle of August, and on October 2 an unfinished nest and 
one containing nearly fledged young were found side by side. 
The nest is a substantial structure of reeds, grass, and sometimes 
mud, lined with fine grass and built into and around the grass 
stems so as to leave it at least a foot or two above the mud or 
water. The eggs are four or five in number, white, heavily 
marked with brown, often making them appear clear chocolate- 
colored. Two broods are usually reared. 
