the Province of Buenos Ayres. 
179 
being aware, before having gone a great distance, of a small 
and ^active bird which constantly keeps flitting just in front 
of your horse, every now and then alighting on a clod of 
earth, but off again before you have reached it. It lives on 
the ground, like our familiar little Wheatear, and constantly 
flits its tail up and down; it also has a habit, like that bird, 
of sometimes taking short quick runs and stopping as sud¬ 
denly as it started. Resident here. Pretty common at Ba- 
radero in April. 
51. Furnarius rufus (Gm.) ; Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1868, 
p. 140. 
Resident and common throughout the year. One of the 
most homely birds we have, there being scarcely a rancho or 
hut in the campo that has not got its pair of Oven-birds. It 
has a loud and rather melodious whistle, which it constantly 
utters, but especially in the spring when it's nest is threatened. 
During the winter it is busily engaged in repairing its nest for 
the ensuing spring. It usually lays in October ; but its breed¬ 
ing-habits are rather irregular. Common at Baradero in 
April. 
52. Cinclodes fuscus (Yieill.); Scl. et Salv. 1. s. c. 
I spent nine days in quarantine a year ago last March on 
Flores Island, at the mouth of the river Plate and about twenty 
miles from Montevideo; and during that time this was the 
only land-bird which inhabited that lonely spot, though a 
flock of Chorlos 99 (Eudromias modest a) paid us a flying 
visit one morning. It feeds on small larvae and insects, and 
is fond of rough ground, where there is little herbage, in the 
neighbourhood of water. I have observed it in this district 
from March to the end of July; whether it breeds here or 
not I do not know. In the winter it generally goes in small 
parties, sometimes in large flocks. Common at Baradero in 
April. 
53. Phlceocryptes melanops (Yieill.). 
Synallaxis melanops , Scl. et Salv. /. s. c. 
Resident, and the commonest of the marsh-loving Synal- 
laxinae. They frequent reed-beds, especially where there is 
