166 Mr. R. Ridgway on the Genus Helminthophaga. 
It is not so good to eat as a Partridge, and shows but poor 
sport, seeking to evade dogs by running, and when flushed 
flying low. Rhynchotis rufescens was some years ago quite 
common near Buenos Ayres; but now “ civilization n has 
driven it backwards, so that it is not to be found in any 
numbers within 100 miles of this place. It is still abundant 
at Chirilcay, where it is caught by men and boys on horse¬ 
back. When a bird is sighted the horseman commences 
riding round it in narrowing circles, until he can pass a horse¬ 
hair noose over its head from the end of a long stick. The 
bird, when alarmed, invariably squats instead of running 
away. In the country they are to be bought for 2d. a piece; 
in the town they fetch from Is. 6d. to 2s. Qd. each. The 
flesh is white and dry. One I flushed in the campo rose 
straight up, like a Pheasant, and then flew with a steady 
flight about 300 yards before it settled again. 
0 
XVII.— Notes on the Genus Helminthophaga. 
By Robert Ridgway. 
The genus Helminthophaga ranks second in importance in the 
family Mniotiltidse, one of the most characteristic of the Ne- 
arctic avifauna of all belonging to that region; and its nu¬ 
merous species are all strictly North American. They are 
distinguished for their graceful form, and, with few excep¬ 
tions, for their very pretty or even beautiful colouring. 
As is the case with the species of the genus Hendroeca, the 
most numerous of all the Mniotiltidse, the species of Helmin¬ 
thophaga belong chiefly to the Eastern Province, only four of 
the ten that are known being found in the country westward 
of the Rocky Mountains; and two of these are common to 
both halves of the continent. But this remark may be deemed 
superfluous when it is recalled that the same may be said of 
the family in general, of whose sixty-one species known to 
occur within the United States, as many as thirty-nine, or 
about two thirds, are confined to the Eastern Province; while 
the proportion of peculiar genera stands as nine eastern to none 
