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Show 1870.] LETTER FROM MR. W. H. HUDSON. 333 the effects it had had on tbe migration of our summer and birds. All the species of Plover had disappeared, with the exception of a few individuals ; and these were so bruised by the wind that they could hardly raise themselves from the ground. Most of the small birds had also disappeared before their usual time of departure ; but of some species the young remained. " Storms and other sudden changes in the temperature are probably the immediate causes of migration in most of the birds that visit the Pampas. Those that are very regular in their coming and going- such as the Currincha (Pyrocephalus rubineus), the Summer Redbreast (Leistes superciliaris), the Tijereta (Milvulus violentus), one of our Swallows, the Humming-birds, and a few others-are the latest to appear, and the earliest to depart. " In the others, the irregularity in the time of migration is the greater the longer the species remains with us-it being, perhaps, greatest in the common Blackbird (Molothrus bonariensis), which sometimes remains all winter and sometimes leaves us early in autumn. The Asquita (Centriles niger) and the Cinclodes fuscus are almost the first winter birds to appear ; but I have not yet seen one individual of either of these species, while some usually late comers, such as Thinocorus rumicivorus and Teenioptera variegata, are plentiful since the storm. The last species has appeared in such numbers that I saw more individuals during an hour's ride a few days ago than I usually see in the course of an entire winter. " Teenioptera variegata is one of the most interesting of the Patagonian birds that visit us in this season, or, indeed, of all the true Pampas birds. The other species of the genus or subgenus to which this bird belongs, the Teeniopterce irrupero, coronata, and dominicana, in every thing closely resemble each other. But T. variegata, although, in structure, it has a general resemblance to these, and also possesses their melancholy, whistling note and rapid, graceful flight, in some respects differs from them very materially. It is somewhat larger, has a straighter bill, more pointed wings ; and its prevailing colour is chocolate, instead of white. It does not quietly watch for its food nor hop on the ground like the T. dominicana, but, like the Plover, runs rapidly along the ground in search of insects. Unlike the others, this Teenioptera is also sociable, quarrelsome, and sportive in its habits, frequently chasing its fellows and pursuing Hawks and other large birds, sometimes with an appearance of great animosity, and often wheeling about them as if in play. I have watched it associating with birds so different in walk and flight that it apparently cost it much trouble to keep their company. It has, when flying, a very pretty appearance, even if it is not what Dr. Burmeister calls it, ' the prettiest bird in this country.' But naturalists, like kings, have their favourites, and this species is evidently his. It is rapid and easy in all its motions and exceedingly active; it takes to flight very frequently, and occasionally alights for a moment on a thistle-top, but never on reeds and shrubs, the favourite resting-place of the white Teenioptera. "It is remarkable that its note, which always sounds as if pro- PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1870, No. XXIII. |
