12 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



a hole seven to nine inches deep, inclining upwards 

 near the end, and terminating in a rotind 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 

 ombu trees growing about my home; now it is 

 nearly extinct, and one may spend years on the 

 plains without meeting with a sii^le example. 



Mr. Barrows speaks as follows of this species : 

 " Abundant and breeding at all points visited. At 

 Conc^cion, 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 melanoteuctts), 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." 



