(PATAGONIAN EARTH-CREEPER.)
+Ochetorhynchus dumetorius+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 463
(Mendoza). +Upucerthia dumetoria+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p.
62; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 544 (Rio Negro); _Durnford,
Ibis_, 1877, p. 35, et 1878, p. 395 (Chupat); _White, P. Z. S._
1883, p. 433 (Cordova).
_Description._--Above earthy brown; long superciliary stripe pale
ochraceous; wings blackish, with a broad transverse cinnamomeous
bar; tail blackish, lateral rectrices tipped with pale cinnamon;
beneath dirty white, clear white on the throat and middle of the
belly; breast-feathers margined with blackish; under wing-coverts
pale cinnamomeous; bill dark horn-colour, pale at the base; feet
horn-colour: whole length 9·0 inches, wing 4·0, tail 3·5. _Female_
similar.
_Hab._ Patagonia and Chili.
These birds are very common in Patagonia, being resident there; some
individuals, however, migrate north in winter, and I once obtained a
pair, male and female, near Buenos Ayres city in the month of June.
Their legs are short, but on the ground their movements are very
rapid, and, like the Miner (_Geositta_) already described, they fly
reluctantly, preferring to run rapidly from a person walking or riding,
and at such times they look curiously like a very small Curlew with an
extravagantly long beak. They are active, lively birds, and live in
pairs, sometimes uniting in small, loose flocks; they are partial to
places where scattered bushes grow on a dry sterile soil, and have a
swift low flight; when flying they frequently utter a shrill, trilling,
or rapidly reiterated note, in sound resembling laughter. In manners,
flight, language, and colouring this bird closely resembles the smaller
short-beaked _Geositta cunicularia_, and like that species it also
breeds in deep holes in banks; but I am not able to say whether it
excavates the breeding-hole or takes possession of one already made.
Durnford found it breeding in a hole four feet deep in the bank of a dry
lagoon. The nest was of dry grass and lined with the fur of the cavy. It
contained three white eggs.