24 PICIDJK. 



moustaches, but no red nape-band, whereas the more northern C. pitra 

 of Peru shows a red nape-band in both sexes. 



260. COLAPTES AGRICOLA (Malh.). 



(PAMPAS WOODPECKER.) 



i 



Colaptes agricola, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 101 ; Hudson, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 549| 

 (Rio Negro) ; Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 25 (Entrerios) ; Wtthington, Ibis, 1888) 

 p. 468 (Lomas de Zamora). Colaptes australis, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. 

 p. 445 (Parana). Colaptes campestris, White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 618 

 (Misiones). 



Description. Above greyish white, transversely barred with blackish ; wings 

 Mack, with golden-yellow shafts, and white bars on the outer webs ; rump 

 white, with smaller black cross bars ; crested head black sides of head and 

 whole neck in front yellow ; malar stripe red ; abdomen white, with regular 

 transverse black bars ; under wing-coverts yellowish white ; bill and feet black : 

 whole length 13-0 inches, wing 6-8, tail 4-9. Female similar, but no red malar 

 stripe. 



Hab. Argentina and Patagonia. 



The species commonly called Carpintero in the Argentine country, 

 and ranging south to Patagonia, is one of a group of the Picidae of 

 South America which diverge considerably in habits from the typical 

 Woodpeckers. On trees they usually perch horizontally 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 structu- 

 rally in accordance with their less arboreal habits, the beak being 

 weaker, the rectrices less stiff, and the legs longer than in other Wood- 

 peckers. In South Brazil and Bolivia the Colaptes campestris repre- 

 sents this group, in Chili C. pitius, and in the Argentine country 

 C. agricola. 



Azara's description, under the heading El Campestre, probably refers 

 to the Brazilian species, but agrees so well in every particular with the 

 pampas Woodpecker that I cannot do better than to quote it in full. 



"Though this name (Campestre) seems inappropriate for any Wood- 

 pecker, no other better describes the present species, since it never 

 enters forests, nor climbs on trunks to seek for insects under the bark, 

 but finds its aliment on the open plain, running with ease on the 

 ground, for its legs are longer than in the others. There it forcibly 

 strikes its beak into the matted turf, where worms or insects lie con- 



