Troglodytes (Uropsila) auricularis, Cab. Journ. f. Orn. 1883, p. 105, t. ii. fig. 1.
Description.—In habit and size near the European Wren, T. parvulus, but peculiar for the blackish-brown hinder half of the ear-coverts and its broad white superciliaries. Upper surface and flanks brown; throat and middle of belly whitish, tinged with brownish yellow; wings and tail with fine black cross bands; crissum with broader black and white cross bands. (Cabanis.)
Hab. Tucuman.
This is a recent discovery of Herr Schulz in the Sierra of Tucuman. We have not yet met with specimens of it.
[14.] CISTOTHORUS PLATENSIS (Lath.).
(PLATAN MARSH-WREN.)
Cistothorus platensis, Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1869, p. 158; iid. Nomencl. p. 7; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 168 (Buenos Ayres); Döring, Exp. al Rio Negro, Zool. p. 37 (R. Sauce, R. Colorado, R. Negro); Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl. viii. p. 87 (Carhué); Sharpe, Cat. B. vi. p. 244. Cistothorus fasciolatus, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii, p. 476 (Mendoza).
Description.—Above pale sandy brown, variegated with black streaks; head darker brown, streaked with black; the hind neck paler brown, with narrow black streaks; wing-coverts brown; tail-feathers dark sandy brown, barred with blackish brown; under surface pale sandy buff: total length 4·3 inches, wing 1·85, tail 1·6. Female similar.
Hab. Argentina, Patagonia, and Falkland Islands.
This small Wren is rarely seen, being nowhere common, although widely distributed. It prefers open grounds covered with dense reeds and grasses, where it easily escapes observation. I have met with it near Buenos Ayres city; also on the desert pampas, in the tall pampas-grass. It is likewise met with along the Paraná river, and in Chili, Patagonia, and the Falkland Islands. In the last-named locality Darwin found it common, and says that it has there an extremely feeble flight, so that it may easily be run down and taken.