VII 
RIO PARANA 
147 
these facts I suspect that the Rhynchops generally fishes by 
night, at which time many of the lower animals come most 
abundantly to the surface. M. Lesson states that he has seen 
these birds opening the shells of the mactrae buried in the sand¬ 
banks on the coast of Chile : from their weak bills, with the 
lower mandible so much projecting, their short legs and long 
wings, it is very improbable that this can be a general habit. 
In our course down the Parana, I observed only three other 
birds, whose habits are worth mentioning. One is a small 
kingfisher (Ceryle Americana); it has a longer tail than the 
European species, and hence does not sit in so stiff and upri ght 
a position. Its flight also, instead of being direct and rapid, 
like the course of an arrow, is weak and undulatory, as among 
the soft-billed birds. It utters a low note, like the clicking 
together of two small stones. A small green parrot (Conurus 
murinus), 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 
with a forked tail, terminated by two long feathers (Tyrannus 
savana), and named by the Spaniards scissor-tail, is very 
common near Buenos Ayres : it commonly sits on a branch of 
the ombu tree, near a house, and thence takes a short flight in 
pursuit 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 
of turning very shortly in the air, and in so doing opens and 
shuts its tail, sometimes in a horizontal or lateral and some¬ 
times in a vertical direction, just like a pair of scissors. 
October 16tk .—Some leagues below Rozario, the western 
shore of the Parana is bounded by perpendicular cliffs, which 
extend in a long line to below San Nicolas ; hence it more 
resembles a sea-coast 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 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 
