Description.—Above dark earthy brown, lores and superciliaries whitish; wings blackish, with a broad transverse cinnamomeous bar; outer tail-feathers blackish, broadly tipped with pale cinnamomeous white; beneath pale cinereous, with a cinnamomeous tinge; throat white, slightly spotted with blackish; bill and feet horn-colour: whole length 7·3 inches, wing 4·0, tail 3·0. Female similar.
Hab. Argentina, Chili, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.
This homely little species differs considerably from most Dendrocolaptine birds in colour and habits; and being of a uniform dull, fuscous hue, its appearance is most uninteresting. It inhabits the whole of Patagonia, but is migratory, possessing, what is rare in this family, a powerful flight. In winter it is common all over the pampas and the Plata district, ranging north to Paraguay. It is always found near water, its favourite hunting-ground being the borders of a stream. On the ground its motions are quick and lively, but when perching on a tree it sits motionless in one position, and when attempting to move appears to lose its balance. These birds cannot be called strictly gregarious, but where abundant they are fond of gathering in loose flocks, sometimes numbering one or two hundred individuals, and when thus associating are very playful, frequently pursuing and wheeling about each other, and uttering a sharp, trilling note. On a warm day in winter they are occasionally heard attempting to sing, the bird darting up vertically into the air and pouring out with great energy a confused torrent of unmelodious sounds.
Their habits, so much less sedate and strikingly in contrast with those of most of the birds in this family, are no doubt due to the greater powers of flight possessed by Cinclodes.
[184.] CINCLODES BIFASCIATUS, Sclater.
(WHITE-WINGED CINCLODES.)
Cinclodes bifasciatus, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 448.
Description.—Above earthy brown with a rufescent tinge on the back, superciliaries white; wings blackish, with a white bar on the secondaries and a second white bar on the inner primaries; tail blackish, outer rectrices tipped with white; beneath white, passing into greyish cinnamomeous on the flanks and crissum; bend of the wing and under wing-coverts white; bill and feet horn-colour: whole length 8·0 inches, wing 4·0, tail 3·3.
Hab. Bolivia and Eastern Argentina.
Weisshaupt obtained examples of this species in the vicinity of Mendoza, from one of which our description is taken.