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Show 158 LETTER FROM MR. W. H. HUDSON. [Mar. 24, species) were well-known inhabitants of New Guinea and the neighbouring islands, with the single exception of Erythrura trichroa (Kittl.), not hitherto recorded as a Papuan species. A third letter* on the ornithology of Buenos Ayres, addressed to the Secretary by Mr. W . H. Hudson, C.M.Z.S., was read :- " There are four Woodpeckers met with in this country [Buenos Ayres]. Two of these (Picus mixtus and Chrysoptilus chlorozostus) you have seen in m y collections. To both these birds the natives have given the vulgar name ' Come-palo,' or ' Woodeater.' Both of these species are quite common in the places they frequent, and are occasionally seen in the thickets south of the Rio Salado; but this is the extreme southern limit of their range, and they prefer the Sayus forests bordering on the Rio de la Plata. Chrysoptilus chlorozostus is sometimes seen to alight on the ground, apparently for the purpose of feeding on worms and ants. Its cries are, when the bird is excited, loud, rapid, and shrill; at other times it modulates them to notes exceedingly soft and sorrowful. " The third species (the Carpintero bianco, or White Carpenterf) affords another illustration of the influence of the riverine wood in introducing new species from the north to this country; for this bird, which is a native of the northern states of La Plata, is occasionally found within a few miles of the city of Buenos Ayres, though never, to m y knowledge, south of it. Probably the divergence from the typical mottled colours of the Woodpeckers is greater in this species than in any other. I am not acquainted with its habits. " The fourth species is the ' Carpintero ; more widely distributed and better known than the other members of the genus to which it belongs, and also of great interest in reference to the erroneous account of its habits in Mr. Darwin's work, which makes it worthy of particular attention. However close an observer a naturalist may be, it is not possible for him to know much of a species from seeing perhaps one or two individuals in the course of a rapid ride across the pampas. Certainly, if Mr. Darwin had truly known the habits of the bird, he would not have attempted to adduce from it an argument in favour of his theory of the origin of species. In Chap. VI. of his well-known work on this subject the author speaks of the altered habits, caused by change of habitat and other extraneous circumstances, and infers that it would be an easy matter for natural selection to step in and alter an animal's structure so as to make a new species of it, after its habits have been so altered. He then proceeds to ask whether ' there can be a more striking instance of adaptation given than that of a Woodpecker for climbing trees and for seizing the insects in the chinks of the bark;' aud, in reference to this, states that there is a Woodpecker inhabiting the plains of La Plata, ' where not a tree grows,' and which is conse- * For Mr. Hudson's previous letters see antea, p. 87 et p. 108. t [Leuconerpcs dominicanus.-4?. L. S.] |