554 



PICARIAN BIRDS. 



tree trunk and climbing continually, after the manner of the other members of 

 the family. 

 Golden-winged This species (C. auratus), familiarly known in the States as the 



woodpecker, flicker, is a bird about 11 inches in length, of a drab-brown colour 

 above, barred with black, the rump being white; the head smoky grey, followed 

 by a scarlet nape-band ; while the sides of the face and throat are drab with a black 

 moustache-band, and a crescentic patch of black on the chest ; the remainder of 

 the under surface being white, spotted with black ; and all the shafts of the quills 

 and tail-feathers golden yellow. A summer visitor to the sub-arctic parts of 

 North America, and breeding even in the high north, in the middle and southern 

 States this woodpecker is a permanent resident. It feeds largely on ants, and 

 wanders over the open country in search of these insects, being far less of a forest- 

 haunting species than most of its relations. An interesting account of the feeding 

 of the young birds by the parents is given by Mr. Brewster, who says that when 

 first he saw the nestlings there were five of them, about as large as plucked house- 

 sparrows, and perfectly naked. Their eyes were tightly closed, and they appeared 

 to be less than a week old. They were writhing and shivering pitifully, the air 

 being cool and damp at the time. He watched the nest for about an hour, but 

 saw nothing of the parent birds, and as a cold rain-storm began soon after, and lasted 

 through the following night, he concluded that the young flickers would soon be 

 dead. On the 1st of July, however, he found them all alive and vigorous ; and then 

 by dint of patience and careful observation he discovered the method by which the 

 young were fed. After a little time the male bird became more accustomed to his 

 presence, and visited the nest when he was not more than fifteen feet away from it. 

 Pampas This woodpecker (C. agricola), is a remarkable bird, with a weaker 



woodpecker, ^m t nan usually found in the family, while it has also longer legs 

 and a less stiffened tail than is customary with woodpeckers ; these modified char- 

 acters being probably brought about by the peculiar habits of the bird, which, as 

 its name implies, is an inhabitant of the pampas of Argentina. In size it is a some- 

 what large species, measuring 12i inches, and has golden shafts to the wing-quills, 

 but black ones to the tail-feathers, which are entirely black. The quill-lining is 

 golden-buff, the crown of the head is black, while the sides of the face and neck 

 as well as the fore-neck are golden yellow, inclining to orange, the chin and throat 

 being white ; the male has a red moustache, and the female a black one. 

 Mr. W. H. Hudson writes that these birds "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 the latter ; and they breed oftener in holes 

 in banks or cliffs than in the trunks of trees." In Patagonia he found the species 

 breeding in the cliffs of the Rio Negro, but on the pampas of Buenos Aires, where 

 the conditions are different, there being no cliffs or old mud-walls suitable for 

 breeding-places, the bird resorts to the big solitary ombu-tree, which has a very 

 soft wood, where it excavates a hole seven to nine inches deep, inclining upwards near 

 the end, and terminating in a round chamber. In the treeless region, about the 

 Sierra de la Ventana, in Uruguay, Mr. Barrows says that he noticed the birds 

 about holes in the banks of streams, where they doubtless had nests. 



