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Show 60 MALDONADO. d the tucu-tuco. Of those I kept frightened, they uttere d became quite tame, not alive several, even the first ay, . others were a little attem' pting to b'I te or to run away ' wilder. m asserted that very many a:e The man who caught the . which I preserved m bli d A speCimen h invariably found n . M R . d considers it to be t e spirits was in this. sta~e ; he ~icti~ating membrane. ~hen effect of inflammatiOn m t d finO'er within half an mch the animal was al iv e I place mty tio'c e was taken: I• t rna d e th lightes no of its head, and not e s arly as well as the others. , b ut the room ne h its way, however, a o h b'ts of the tucutuco, t e Consi· derm· g the su bterranean a I t be a very sen.o us evi·1 ·, h f equent canno blindness, thoug so r ' . l should possess an organ yet it appears strange th.a t. any amTmha mole whose habi· ts m· constantly subject to mJury: . eth ki~d of food, are so t exceptmg m e · h nearly every respec' 11 d protected eye, wlnc ' t clysma m d similar, has an :x rem . . d . sion at once seems adapte although possessmg a hmite V1 ' to its manner of life. l bundant on the undu-k. ds are extreme Y a . Birds of many m M ld do Several species, · nd a ona · lating grassy plams. arou llied to our starlings in habits of the genus CassiCus, a h d a mockingd f Tyrant-flycatc ers, an and structure, an ° . h ter to the ornithology· h . b rs giVe a c arac bird, from t eu nui_U. e ' beautiful, black and yellow Some of the CassiCl are very 0 . l ber Gme offers 'li 1 urs. but no us ru , ., being the preval ng .co ~ h' d h lders and thighs of the · · h ng Its ea , s ou ' an exceptiOn, m a VI . b' d d' Jr rs from its congeners most splen dI'd scar1 e t . Th1s Ir lhll e . d seated on the . 1. It frequents mars es , an ' in bemg so Itary. . h 't th wide open, utters a summit of a low bush, WI~ I s m~~ heard at a long displaintive agreeable cry, whiCh can tance. . h bl k colour with a me- Another species,* of a purph.s -. ac flo~ks mingled tallic lustre, feeds on the plam m large ' . • Le Troupiale commun of Azara ( vol. m... ., p. 169)- a second specieS of Molothrus. 1832-3. ORNITHOLOGY. 61 with other birds. Several may often be seen standing on the back of a cow or horse. While perched on a hedge, and pluming themselves in the sun, they sometimes attempt to sing, or rather to hiss : the noise is very peculiar; it resembles that of bubbles of air passing rapidly from a small orifice under water, so as to produce an acute sound. Azara states that this bird, like the cuckoo, deposits its eggs in other birds' nests. I was several times told by the country people, that there was some bird with this habit; and my assistant in collecting, who is a very accurate person, found a nest of the sparrow* of the country, with one egg in it larger than the others, and of a different colour and shape. Mr. Swainson t has remarked that with the exception of the Molothrus pecoris, the cuckoos are the only birds which can be called truly parasitical; namely, such as "fasten themselves, as . it were, on another living animal, whose animal heat brings their young into life, whose food they alone live upon, and whose death would cause theirs during the period of infancy." The Molothrus pecoris is a North-American bird, and is closely allied in general habits, even in such peculiarities as standing on the backs of cattle (as its name implies), and in appearance, with the species from the plains of La Plata; it only differs in being rather smaller and of a different colour, yet the two birds would be considered by every naturalist as distinct species. It is very interesting to see so close an agreement in structure, and in habits, between allied species coming from opposite parts of a great continent. It is also very remarkable, that the cuckoos and the molothri, although opposed to each other in almost every habit, should agree in the one strange one of their parasitical propagation. The molothrus, like our starling, is '*' A Zonotrichia ;-the chingolo of Azara. The egg is rather less than that of the missel-thrush; it is of a nearly globular form, but with one end rather smaller than the other. The ground colour is a pale pinkishwhite, with irregular spots and blotches of a pinkish brown, and others less distinct of a grayish hue. The egg is now in the museum of the Zoological Society. t Magazine of Zoology and Botany, vol. i., p. 217. |