(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.
The Marsh-Wren has a sweet and delicate song, resembling that of the
House-Wren (_Troglodytes furvus_), but much less powerful. It does not
migrate; and on the pampas I have heard it singing with great animation
when the pampas-grass, where it sat perched, was white with frozen
dew. Probably its song, like that of _Troglodytes furvus_, varies in
different districts; at all events, the pampas bird does not possess so
fine a song as Azara ascribes to his "Todo Voz" in Paraguay, which is
undoubtedly the same species.
Fam. V. MOTACILLIDÆ, or WAGTAILS.
The Wagtails and Pipits are closely-allied forms, and are usually
referred to the same family of Oscines. The Wagtails are restricted to
the Old World, although it has been recently ascertained that some of
them occasionally occur as stragglers in the northern latitudes of
America. Of the almost cosmopolitan Pipits about eight or nine species
are sparingly distributed over the prairies and pampas of the New World.
One of these is a common resident in the pampas of Argentina, and
another (perhaps somewhat doubtful species) is occasionally met with.