innermost secondaries but very little shorter than the primaries. The 4th
primary quill feather longest, and scarcely exceeding the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th,
the 3rd shorter than the 8th, and not quite so long as the shortest of the secondaries
; the 1st about half the length of the 4th. Tail broad and rounded
at the extremity. The feathers of the head, neck, throat, and breast, rigid :
those immediately in front of the eyes wiry and decomposed.
DIMENSIONS.
Inches. Lines. Inches. T.inac
length from the tip of the bill to the Length of the tarsus.............. e
extremity of the tail...... . 10 0 ' of the hinder toe ...... 5
of the ta il............................. 5 0 ............. 0 of the middle toe ...... .......... 0
of the wings when folded......
4 6
of the bill from the angle of
the month......................... 1 1
In the female the general colours are less bright, and the white spots are
not so pure, particularly those on the throat and breast.
The first specimens of this bird were obtained in latitude 25° 24' S., and, as we have reason
to believe, upon the extreme limit of its southern range. fVliere the species was first discovered,
only a very few specimens were observed; but, by the time we had reached a degree
more to the northward, they occurred in great abundance. Spots covered with reeds, such as
are seen along the margins of many of the rivers of the country they inhabit, appeared to form
their favorite feeding places; and though, when disturbed, they would leave those for a time,
and take up their abode among the brush-wood with which the hanks -of the streams were
more or less covered, they invariably returned to the haunts they had left when the cause
which led them to remove had ceased to exist. While lodged among the reeds they were
almost incessantly in motion; and, from their being generally associated in great numbers, the
noise occasioned, partly by their flitting from one stem to another or climbing, and partly by
the harsh cries they uttered, more especially on the appearance of danger, rendered even a temporary
residence in the vicinity of their haunts quite disagreeable. Though they evidently preferred,
as resorts, the situations described, yet, where reeds did not occur, they were occasionally
found among the brushwood remote from rivers; and in these positions they also
displayed an extremely restless disposition; scarcely were they observed to enter a bush or
thicket before they were seen leaving it from the opposite side, for an adjacent one, Though
such was their common practice, there were times when they appeared less disposed to hasty
changes, and when they were to be noticed, not simply following a tortuous bourse, but even
ascending and descending among the branches; nay, even visiting the ground below and
around the hushes. As far as we had opportunities of judging, they feed exclusively upon insects;
and those which were killed when among The reeds, seemed to have committed great
havoc upon the larvae of Gryllidce, &c. while those obtained among the brushwood appeared
principally to have fed upon coleopterous insects.