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Show 1870.] LETTER FROM MR. W. H. HUDSON. 799 " I have only been able to obtain three specimens of the Molothrus rufo-axillaris since receiving your letter asking for some skins of that species : they all proved males ; so I shall keep them for you until I have samples of both sexes. I am not yet very well acquainted with the breeding-habits of this bird, but, from what I have observed, strongly suspect that it is polygamous. If this is true, it is a wonderful circumstance that the three Molothri of Buenos Ayres should differ from almost all other birds in their weakness or total want of sexual attachment. I hope in summer to be able to discover some additional facts concerning the M. bonariensis, also to collect for you some of their eggs, which I am sure you will think interesting curiosities. " Winter and resident game birds are uncommonly plentiful this season, affording m e a good opportunity for securing specimens and observing their habits. As I am fond of gunning, the Duck and Snipe families are favourites. Of the Scolopacidee family I am acquainted with twenty species. Seventeen of these are well known to naturalists, or at least have had their affinities determined ; but before writing much about them I should like to become more familiar with some of their habits, especially the times of their arrival and departure, also the nidification of the resident species. The other three are perhaps not known, or not considered natives of this region. I have formerly shot, but never preserved, specimens of two of them. But I will say no more at present about these birds, as memory is not a faithful guide in such matters, and some favourable chance may bring them in m y way again. " It is a remarkable circumstance that the three birds that possess perhaps the widest range of all the species belonging to the fauna of Buenos Ayres should have been uncommonly abundant this autumn. These birds are the Himantopus nigricollis, a native of both Americas ; the Otus br achy otus, called here ' Lechuson,' and known, I believe, in Asia and Europe as well as in America; and the Glossy Ibis (Ibis falcinellus), a bird possessing a still wider range. The Black-necked Himantopus, though almost unfailingly found wherever much water occurs on the pampas, is not a numerous species ; but at present they are extremely abundant, and quite familiar even in cultivated fields near the farmhouses, flocks of them being seen wherever little pools of water have been formed by the rains. At some future time I will communicate all I have learned from personal observation respecting its habits. Whether the habits of a species (like this bird) distributed over an entire continent become modified by circumstances in the widely separated regions they frequent, or not, must be an interesting subject of inquiry to naturalists. " The Glossy Ibis is very common all over the State of Buenos Ayres. They appear in spring; but as their movements are very irregular, and many individuals remain through the winter, their migrations are probably not altogether dependent on atmospheric changes. They have a graceful flight; and when migrating, the flocks are seen to succeed each other in rapid succession, each flock being usually composed of from fifty to a hundred individuals, but |