SP Myers 1974 Cowpies Estancia Mielkland, 35 Km S. of Juanola by road, Pto de Madariaga, Provincia de Bs Aires, Argentina 27 April I should have started a 'sp accent' of this heading last November when I first saw 3 Hydriots around a single cowpie, all greedily plunging their bills within. Since then within the journals within spp accents of many different sp. I have recorded observation of cow pie usage by birds. Most of the observations have dealt with shorebirds - Ruff, Curlew, Godwit, Lapwing, Golden Throated, Arenaria, etc., but there have been passerines (e.g. Gecitta curicularia), Polyborus, and others making avail of that which cows so liberally leave behind. I see three general types of usage: 1) Foraging - a bird takes food out of the cowpie 2) Shelter - small shorebirds, particularly Ruffs (Ruffa), bundle with Dauricus 3) Perching sites - used for preening, for foraging (i.e. Amin lesserica) or singing (Bemotrichia). It would be particularly nice to be able to state the food items which the spp are taking, to be able to describe the decay process + at what stage individual cowpies are used, and something about the densities achieved, particularly in places and at times when there is heavy shorebird usage - e.g. when Godwits were defending territorially a set of cowpies. 25 August behind camp a pair of horneros are using cow + horse droppings for building their nest 30' up in a Eucalyptus 26 August Linedes focus, posting over a broken-up cp, presumably to find food beneath 10 September see Pseudoleistis viriscens sp. accent. 15 September Molothrus bonariensis behaving similarly to Pseudoleistis observed 10 Sept: running between cow and horse dung, quelling it over or beside and feeding beneath. Pseudoleistis there with it behaving similarly. Molothrus also perching on top of cowpie, pecking in the dung from its perch. 17 September see Oicopholus sp. accent re loud behavior. 8.0902 Anthus corneus perch on cowpies - actually, it is running from cp to cp, jumping on top as it reaches through, stretching its neck / looking around. Not feeding, neither in/on cowpie nor en route between. 29 September - a rodent? digging in a cowpie in the pampas grass (s.?) camp. smaller than a loud Crinmys, perhaps 4" + tail - reddish brown. brady eyes.