IO BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
rr 
PAMPAS WOODPECKER 
Colaptes agricola 
Above greyish white, transversely barred with black; wings black 
with golden-yellow shafts, and white bars on the outer webs; rump 
white with small black cross-bars ; crested head black; sides of head 
and neck in front yellow; malar stripe red; length 13 inches. 
Female similar, but without the red malar stripe. 
THE species commonly called Carpintero in the 
Argentine country, and ranging south to Patagonia, 
is one of a group of the Picide of South America 
which diverge considerably in habits from the typical 
Woodpeckers. On trees they usually perch horizon- 
tally and crosswise, like ordinary birds, and only 
occasionally cling vertically to trunks of trees, using 
the tail as a support. They also seek their food 
more on the ground than on trees, in some cases 
not at all on trees, and they also breed oftener in 
holes in banks or cliffs than in the trunks of trees. 
As Darwin remarks in The Origin of Species, in his 
chapter on Instinct, these birds have, to some slight 
extent, been modified structurally in accordance with 
their less arboreal habits, the beak being weaker, the 
rectrices less stiff, and the legs longer than in other 
Woodpeckers. In South Brazil and Bolivia the 
Colaptes campestris represents this group, in Chili 
C. pitius, and in the Argentine country C. agricola. 
Azara’s description, under the heading El Cam- 
pestre, probably refers to the Brazilian species, but 
agrees so well in every particular with the Pampas 
