6 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



open plain. Mr. Dalgleish says of the eggs : 

 '' They are oval-shaped, and resemble much in 

 appearance those of the Nightjar, except that the 

 markings, which are similar in character to those 

 of the latter, are of a reddish-brown or port-wine 

 colour." 



After the breeding-season they are sometimes 

 found in flocks of forty or fifty individuals, and will 

 spend months on the same spot, returning to it in 

 equal numbers every year. One summer a flock of 

 about two hundred individuals frequented a meadow 

 near my house, and one day I observed them rise up 

 very early in the evening and begin soaring about 

 like a troop of swallows preparing to migrate. I 

 watched them for upwards of an hour ; but they 

 did not scatter as on previous evenings to seek for 

 food, and after a while they began to rise higher and 

 higher, still keeping close together, until they dis- 

 appeared from sight. Next morning I found that 

 they had gone. 



In Entrerios, Mr. Barrows tells us, this Goat- 

 sucker is an abundant summer resident, arriving early 

 in September and departing again in April. It is 

 strictly crepuscular or nocturnal, never voluntarily 

 taking wing by daylight. In November it lays a pair 

 of spotted eggs in a hollow scooped in the soil of 

 the open plain. These in shape and markings re- 

 semble eggs of the Night-hawk {Chordeiles virginianus), 

 somewhat, but are of course much larger, and have 

 a distinct reddish tinge. " We found the birds not 

 uncommon near Bahia Blanca, 17th February, 1881, 



