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Show 1870.] MR. C. DARWIN ON THE PAMPAS WOODPECKER. 705 exertion, still very many species must have escaped me. However that may be, I am unaware of such a large number of marine species having been collected anywhere in such a short period. As far as possible the foregoing fish have, when a doubt ha3 arisen, been examined with the specimens at the British Museum, for facilities of doing which, and also for personal assistance, I have to express m y obligations to Dr. Gunther. I have placed a considerable number of duplicates in the British Museum, retaining, however, m y own large collection intact in this country until such time as I again return from India, when I trust I shall bring with me further additions to it. 2. Note on the Habits of the Pampas Woodpecker (Colaptes campestris). By C H A R L E S D A R W I N , F.R.S. In the last of Mr. Hudson's valuable articles on the Ornithology of Buenos Ayres*, he remarks, with respect to m y observations on the Colaptes campestris, that it is not possible for a naturalist " to know much of a species from seeing perhaps one or two individuals in the course of a rapid ride across the Pampas." M y observations were made in Banda Oriental, on the northern bank of the Plata, where, thirty-seven years ago, this bird was common; and during my successive visits, especially near Maldonado, I repeatedly saw many specimens living on the open and undulating plains, at the distance of many miles from a tree. I was confirmed in m y belief, that these birds do not frequent trees, by the beaks of some which I shot being muddy, by their tails being but little abraded, and by their alighting on posts or branches of trees (where such grew) horizontally and crosswise, in the manner of ordinary birds, though, as I have stated, they sometimes alighted vertically. When I wrote these notes, I knew nothing of the works of Azara, who lived for many years in Paraguay, and is generally esteemed as an accurate observer. Now Azara calls this bird the Woodpecker of the plains, and remarks that the name is highly appropriate; for, as he asserts, it never visits woods, or climbs up trees, or searches for insects under the barkf. He describes its manner of feeding on the open ground, and of alighting, sometimes horizontally and sometimes vertically, on trunks, rocks, & c , exactly as I have done. He states that the legs are longer than those of other species of Woodpeckers. The beak, however, is not so straight and strong, nor the tail-feathers so stiff, as in the typical members of the group. Therefore this species appears to have been to a slight extent modified, in accordance with its less arboreal habits. Azara further states that it builds its nest in holes, excavated in old mud walls or in the banks of streams. I may add that the Colaptes pitius, which in Chile represents the Pampas species, likewise frequents dry stony hills, where only a few bushes or trees grow, and may becontinuallyseen feeding on the ground. Accordingto Molina, this Colaptes also builds its nest in holes in banks. * P. Z. S. 1870, p. 158. t Apunt. ii. p. 311 (1802). |