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Show 594 MR. E. w. W H I T E O N B I R D S [June 20, This bird is exceedingly abundant in the province of Buenos Aires, but it is also met with nearly all over the Republic. Builds a nest of twigs and dry grass, lined usually with horsehair, in holes in the walls of barns and outhouses. I have not unfrequently found the eggs of this bird in old nests of Furnarius rufus, and sometimes even in the nest of Zonotrichia pileata, under a thistle in the campo. The egg is of a pinkish ground, thickly sprinkled with minute rufous spots, which are concentrated in a crown around the blunt end. Measurements: axis 19 millim., diam. 14 millim. 8. ANTHUS CORRENDERA (Vieill.). 2 c? and 1 $ . San Jose de Flores, B. Aires, Arg. Rep., Aug, 26 1881. & ' Iris dark. This bird is abundant at this season of the year in low-lying swampy pastures, where the grass is high. Upon being disturbed they start up high into the air, very much like an English lark, singing all the while very prettily, and remain poised on the win-*. O n the approach of a foot-passenger they crouch close to the ground, allowing the foot almost to tread upon them; and as they are of its exact colour, they are difficult to see. This habit leads the observant country urchins to compass the destruction of these poor birds, which they do by breaking off a piece of fencing wire, about a yard and a half long, turning it up at the ends, seizing it by one extremity, whirling it round their heads, all the while approaching the feathered songsters, and then suddenly launching the chain shot, which rarely misses its errand. 9. PARULA PITIAYUMI (Vieill.). c?. Sierras de Totoral, Catamarca, Arg. Rep., Aug. 22, 1880. c? . San Javier, Misiones, Arg. Rep., June 7, 1881. Iris dark. In the sierras of Totoral I met with this bird, usually in the thick parts of the woods ; yet it was not very common. It has a nice lively chirp and is very quick in its movements. But in Misiones I found it very abundant in the dense woods. 10. GEOTHLYPIS VELATA (Vieill.). rf. Oran, Salta, Arg. Rep., Nov. 18, 1880. Iris sepia. I shot this bird out in the open country, where it was hopping about in the thickest part of some low bushes near a running stream. 11. BASILEUTERUS VERMIVORUS (Vieill.). S. San Javier, Misiones, Arg. Rep., June 7, 1881. Iris dark. ~TnTs V h u is n°t at all uncommon in the woods of Misiones. |