13 BIRDS OF LA 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 

 ombii 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) t 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*" 



