The nest is always very cunningly concealed, and I have often spent days searching in a patch of cardoon-bushes where the birds were breeding without being able to find it.
+Synallaxis maluroides+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 64; _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1874, p. 26; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 180, et 1878, p. 61 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._ viii. p. 208 (Entrerios).
_Description._--Above, front and middle of crown chestnut; hind head, neck, and back pale fulvous brown, thickly marked with longitudinal black shaft-spots; lores white; wings blackish, the feathers edged with pale ochraceous, the basal part of secondaries very pale brown, forming a transverse bar; tail pale chestnut-brown, the two middle feathers with a broad black mark on the inner web; beneath white, breast and flanks washed with pale brown, and freckled with very small dark brown spots; under wing-coverts white; bill and feet pale horn-colour: whole length 6·1 inches, wing 2·0, tail 2·9. _Female_ similar.
D'Orbigny discovered this small Spine-tail near Buenos Ayres city, but did not record its habits. Like the species just described it is abundant on the pampas, but in its habits resembles a Wren of the genus _Cistothorus_ rather than a Pipit, being partial to moist situations, where there is a rank growth of grass and herbage. The wings are very short, and the flight so feeble that the bird refuses to rise after being pursued a distance of one or two hundred yards. And yet I am not prepared to say that it does not migrate, as I have found that in spring it all at once becomes very abundant, while in the cold season it is rarely seen. It is solitary, and in spring sits on a thistle or stalk, uttering at short intervals its small grasshopper-like song or call. The nest is a slight open structure of grass, lined with a few feathers, placed in a tuft of grass or reeds. The eggs are pure white in colour.
+Coryphistera alaudina+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 470 (Paraná); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 64; _Salv. Ibis_, 1880, p. 359 (Tucuman, Salta); _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 40 (Cordova).
_Description._--Above dark greyish brown; elongated crest-feathers blackish; ear-coverts chestnut; on the back, upper tail-coverts, and upper wing-coverts the feathers have white and whity-brown edgings; wing-feathers blackish, the basal part of the inner webs pale brown; rectrices bright chestnut, broadly tipped with blackish; beneath white, thickly striated with fulvous brown; under wing-coverts pale cinnamon; bill and feet light brown: whole length 6·2 inches, wing 2·7, tail 2·3. _Female_ similar.
