Volume Ii Part 2 (2/2)

(RINGED SPINE-TAILED SWIFT.)

+Hemiprocne zonaris+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 95. +Acanthylis collaris+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 449 (Mendoza).

_Description._--Black, glossed with bronzy; a white collar round the neck, rather broader in front; tail spiny, slightly forked: whole length 85 inches, wing 75, tail 28. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Central and South America down to Argentina.

Dr. Burmeister observed specimens of this fine large Spine-tailed Swift near the Sierra of Mendoza in December and the following month.

Fam. XXII. CAPRIMULGIDae, or GOATSUCKERS.

Nearly fifty different species of the singular nocturnal birds commonly known as ”Goatsuckers” are found in the Neotropical Region. They are most numerous within the tropics, where insect-life is more abundant, but also occur more sparingly in temperate lat.i.tudes. Six of them have been recorded as having been met with within the limits a.s.signed to this work.

The Goatsuckers generally take their insect-prey on the wing late in the evening; but many of them often alight on the ground, and usually nest there or in hollow trees.

242. PODAGER NACUNDA (Vieill.).

(NACUNDA GOATSUCKER.)

+Podager nacunda+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 95; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 142 (Buenos Ayres); _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 449 (Parana); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 24 (Entrerios, Bahia Blanca).

_Description._--Above brown with dense black vermiculations and occasional blotches; wings black, with a broad white cross bar across the base of the primaries; secondaries and coverts like the back; tail above like the back, beneath grey with blackish cross bands; four outer tail-feathers broadly tipped with white: beneath, breast brown variegated with black, as above; chin fulvous; band across the throat and whole belly and crissum white; bill black; feet pale brown: whole length 110 inches, wing 95, tail 49.

_Female_ similar, but without the white ends to the tail-feathers.

_Hab._ South America.

The specific name of this Goatsucker is from the Guarani word _nacunda_, which Azara tells us is the Indian nickname for any person with a very large mouth. In the Argentine country it has several names, being called _Dormilon_ (Sleepy-head) or _Duerme-duerme_ (Sleep-sleep), also _Gallina ciega_ (blind hen). It is a large handsome bird, and differs from its congeners in being gregarious, and in never perching on trees or entering woods. It is an inhabitant of the open pampas. In Buenos Ayres, and also in Paraguay, according to Azara, it is a summer visitor, arriving at the end of September and leaving at the end of February. In the love season the male is sometimes heard uttering a song or call, with notes of a hollow mysterious character; at other times they are absolutely silent, except when disturbed in the daytime, and then each bird when taking flight emits the syllable _kuf_ in a hollow voice. When flushed the bird rushes away with a wild zigzag flight, close to the ground, then suddenly drops like a stone, disappearing at the same moment from sight as effectively as if the earth had swallowed it up, so perfect is the protective resemblance in the colouring of the upper plumage to the ground. In the evening they begin to fly about earlier than most _Caprimulgi_, hawking after insects like swallows, skimming over the surface of the ground and water with a swift, irregular flight; possibly the habit of sitting in open places exposed to the full glare of the sun has made them somewhat less nocturnal than other species that seek the shelter of thick woods or herbage during the hours of light.

The Nacunda breeds in October, and makes no nest, but lays two eggs on a sc.r.a.ped place on the 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 disappeared from sight. Next morning I found that they had gone.

In Entrerios, Mr. Barrows tells us, this Goatsucker 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 resemble eggs of the Nighthawk (_Chordeiles virginia.n.u.s_) somewhat, but are of course much larger, and have a distinct reddish tinge. We found the birds not uncommon near Bahia Blanca, February 17, 1881, but elsewhere on the Pampas we did not observe them.

243. CHORDEILES VIRGINIa.n.u.s (Gm.).

(WHIP-POOR-WILL.)

+Chordeiles virginia.n.u.s+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 96; _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 24 (Entrerios); _Berlepsch, J. f. O._ 1887, p. 120 (Paraguay).

_Description._--Above black, varied and mottled with brown; wings black, with a broad white bar across the bases of the five outer primaries; tail black, with brown cross bands and a broad white subapical bar: beneath white, with dense blackish cross bands; breast blacker; broad throat-band white; bill black; feet pale brown: whole length 85 inches, wing 78, tail 40. _Female_ similar, but throat-band tawny and no white band on the tail.

_Hab._ North and South America.

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