Volume Ii Part 3 (1/2)

The well-known ”Whip-poor-Will” of the U. S. appears to extend its winter-migration into Northern Argentina. Mr. Barrows has recorded the capture of two specimens of this species at Concepcion in Entrerios in January 1880 and December of the same year. Its occurrence in Paraguay is also known to us, and Natterer obtained examples of it in S.E.

Brazil.

244. ANTROSTOMUS PARVULUS (Gould).

(LITTLE GOATSUCKER.)

+Caprimulgus parvulus+, _Gould, Zool. Voy. Beagle_, iii. p. 37.

+Antrostomus parvulus+, _Scl. P. Z. S._ 1866, p. 138, pl. xiii.; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 96; _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p.

451 (Parana); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 184 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 24 (Entrerios); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 467 (Lomas de Zamora).

_Description._--Above rufous mottled with blackish, crown black; tips of wing-coverts spotted with white; beneath fulvous with irregular black cross bands; primaries black, with white bars across the second, third, and fourth about half-way down; tail like the back, but tips of outer rectrices white: whole length 75 inches, wing 53, tail 40. _Female_ similar, but without the white spots on the wings and tail.

_Hab._ Brazil and Argentina.

Resident, according to Mr. Durnford, in the province of Buenos Ayres, ”but probably, from its shy and retiring disposition, considered rarer than it really is. Like our Nightjar (_Caprimulgus europaeus_) it frequents open spots in sheltered coppices on banks under a sheltering hedge of thorns, and may generally be found in the same place from day to day, coming out about dusk in quest of moths and other insects.”

Mr. Barrows tells us that this species is not uncommon in Entrerios in summer time, and ”doubtless breeds.” At dusk he frequently saw it near the margins of the woods and thickets, where it makes only short flights, soon settling on the ground.

Gould's original description of this species was based on a specimen obtained by Darwin near Santa Fe on the Parana, which is now in the British Museum.

245. STENOPSIS BIFASCIATA (Gould).

(WING-BANDED GOATSUCKER.)

+Stenopsis bifasciata+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 96; _iid. P. Z.

S._ 1868, p. 142 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 37 (Chupat), et 1878, p. 396 (Centr. Patagonia). +Antrostomus longirostris+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 450 (Mendoza).

_Description._--Above greyish brown variegated with black, crown black; light rufous collar at the back of the neck; wing-coverts with large light brown spots; primaries black, with a broad white bar across the five outer ones; tail black; lateral rectrices with a white bar near the base, and very broad white tips: beneath fulvous, with narrow blackish cross bands; throat-band white; crissum pale fulvous: whole length 100 inches, wing 60, tail 50. _Female_ similar, but the white on the throat, wings, and tail replaced by fulvous and less extended.

_Hab._ Chili, Patagonia, and Argentina.

A single skin of this species was obtained at Conchitas by Hudson.

Durnford also found it rather rare in Chupat and its vicinity, though resident and breeding in that district. ”When flushed it never flies very far, but seeks the shelter of a small bush, squatting flat on the ground, and from its peculiar zigzag mode of flight it is difficult for the eye to follow it.”

246. HYDROPSALIS FURCIFERA (Vieill.).

(FORK-TAILED GOATSUCKER.)

[Plate XII.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: HYDROPSALIS FURCIFERA.]

+Hydropsalis furcifera+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 96; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 185 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 24 (Entrerios). +Hydropsalis psalurus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii.