1870.| MR. C. DARWIN ON THE PAMPAS WOODPECKER. 705 
exertion, still very many species must have escaped me. However 
that may be, I am unaware of such a large number of marine species 
having been collected anywhere in such a short period. 
As far as possible the foregoing fish have, when a doubt has 
arisen, been examined with the specimens at the British Museum, 
for facilities of doing which, and also for personal assistance, I have 
to express my obligations to Dr. Giinther. 
I have placed a considerable number of duplicates in the British 
Museum, retaining, however, my own large collection intact in this 
country until such time as I again return from India, when I trust I 
shall bring with me further additions to it. 
2. Note on the Habits of the Pampas Woodpecker (Colaptes 
campestris). By Cuartes Darwin, F.R.S. 
In the last of Mr. Hudson’s valuable articles on the Ornithology 
of Buenos Ayres*, he remarks, with respect to my observations on 
the Colaptes campestris, that it is not possible for a naturalist ‘ to 
know much of a species from seeing perhaps one or two individuals 
in the course of a rapid ride across the Pampas.’ My observations 
were made in Banda Oriental, on the northern bank of the Plata, 
where, thirty-seven years ago, this bird was common; and during 
my successive visits, especially near Maldonado, I repeatedly saw 
many specimens living on the open and undulating plains, at the 
distance of many miles from a tree. I was confirmed in my belief, 
that these birds do not frequent trees, by the beaks of some which I 
shot being muddy, by their tails being but little abraded, and by 
their alighting on posts or branches of trees (where such grew) hori- 
zontally and crosswise, in the manner of ordinary birds, though, as 
I have stated, they sometimes alighted vertically. When I wrote 
these notes, I knew nothing of the works of Azara, who lived for many 
years in Paraguay, and. is generally esteemed as an accurate observer. 
Now Azara calls this bird the Woodpecker of the plains, and re- 
marks that the name is highly appropriate; for, as he asserts, it 
never visits woods, or climbs up trees, or searches for insects under 
the bark+. He describes its manner of feeding on the open ground, 
and of alighting, sometimes horizontally and sometimes vertically, 
on trunks, rocks, &e., exactly as I have done. He states that the 
legs are longer than those of other species of Woodpeckers. The 
beak, however, is not so straight and strong, nor the tail-feathers so 
stiff, as in the typical members of the group. Therefore this spe- 
cies appears to have been to a slight extent modified, in accordance 
with its less arboreal habits. Azara further states that it builds its 
nest in holes, excavated in old mud walls or in the banks of streams. 
I may add that the Colaptes pitius, which in Chile represents the 
Pampas species, likewise frequents dry stony hills, where only a few 
bushes or trees grow, and may becontinually seen feeding on the ground. 
According to Molina, this Colaptesalso builds its nest in holes in banks. 
* P.Z.S. 1870, p. 158. + Apunt. 1. p. 311 (1802). 
