232 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
language has the shrill excited character common to 
this most loquacious family ; and at intervals through- 
out the day two birds, male and female, meet together 
and make the woods echo with their screaming con- 
cert. For many weeks after I had become familiar 
with these loud-sounding notes, while collecting in 
the littoral forest where it is found, the bird was still 
to me only a “wandering voice’; but I did not 
give up the pursuit till I had seen it several times 
and had also secured two or three specimens. I 
found one nest, though without eggs, a rough- 
looking domed structure, made with material enough 
to fill a barrow. I also discovered that the bird feeds 
exclusively on the ground, close to the boles of 
low-branching trees, where there is usually an 
accumulation of fallen bark, dead leaves, and other 
rubbish. Here the bird digs with its sharp beak for 
the small insects it preys on. When approached it 
does not fly away, but runs swiftly to the nearest 
tree, behind the trunk of which it hides, then scuttles 
on to the next tree, and so escapes without showing 
itself. 
Mr. Barrows, who observed the Cachalote at 
Concepcion, says that it is a bird which cannot be 
overlooked, with an outrageous disposition and voice, 
and a nest the size of a barrel. He gives the follow- 
ing account of its nidification: ‘‘ His nest is built 
entirely of sticks, and many of them of goodly size, 
frequently as large round as your little finger and 
two feet or more long. These are disposed in such 
a way as to form a structure three or four feet in 
