232 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



language has the shrill excited character common to 

 this most loquacious family ; and at intervals through- 

 out the day two birds, male and female, meet together 

 and make the woods echo with their screaming con- 

 cert. For many weeks after I had become familiar 

 with these loud-sounding notes, while collecting in 

 the littoral forest where it is found, the bird was still 

 to me only a " wandering voice " ; but I did not 

 give up the pursuit till I had seen it several times 

 and had also secured two or three specimens, I 

 found one nest, though without eggs, a rough- 

 looking domed structure, made with material enough 

 to fill a barrow, I also discovered that the bird feeds 

 exclusively on the ground, close to the boles of 

 low-branching trees, where there is usually an 

 accumulation of fallen bark, dead leaves, and other 

 rubbish. Here the bird digs with its sharp beak for 

 the small insects it preys on. When approached it 

 does not fly away, but runs swiftly to the nearest 

 tree, behind the trunk of which it hides, then scuttles 

 on to the next tree, and so escapes without showing 

 itself. 



Mr. Barrows, who observed the Gachalote at 

 Concepcion, says that it is a bird which cannot be 

 overlooked, with an outrageous disposition and voice, 

 and a nest the size of a barrel. He gives the follow- 

 ing account of its nidification : " His nest is built 

 entirely of sticks, and many of them of goodly size, 

 frequently as large round as your little finger and 

 two feet or more long. These are disposed in such 

 a way as to form a structure three or four feet in 



