12 BIRDS OF ie PLATA 
a hole seven to nine inches deep, inclining upwards 
near the end, and terminating in a round chamber. 
This reversal to an ancestral habit, which (con- 
sidering the modified structure of the bird) must 
have been lost at a very remote period in its history, 
is exceedingly curious. Formerly this Woodpecker 
was quite common on the pampas. I remember that 
when I was a small boy quite a colony lived in the 
ombti trees growing about my home; now it is 
nearly extinct, and one may spend years on the 
plains without meeting with a single example. 
Mr. Barrows speaks as follows of this species: 
“ Abundant and breeding at all points visited. At 
Concepcion, where it is resident, it is by far the 
commonest Woodpecker. The ordinary note very 
much resembles the reiterated alarm-note of the 
Greater Yellow-legs (Totanus melanoleucus), but so 
loud as to be almost painful when close at hand, and 
easily heard a mile or more away. They spend much 
time on the ground, and I often found the bills of 
those shot quite muddy. A nest found near Concep- 
cion, 6th November, 1880, was in the hollow trunk 
of a tree, the entrance being through an enlarged 
crack at a height of some three feet from the ground. 
The five white eggs were laid on the rubbish at the 
bottom of the cavity, perhaps a foot above the ground. 
In the treeless region about the Sierra de la Ventana 
we saw this bird about holes on the banks of the 
streams, where it doubtless had nests.” 
