Bulletin - United States National Museum - si-pddr - Smithsonian ...

BIEDS OF ARGENTINA, PAEAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 223
They gave the chattering call usual to young woodpeckers in begging
for food, and in addition emitted a low wheezing note. The smallest
was entirely devoid of down. All had prominent heelpads. These
birds were preserved in alcohol.
COLAPTES CAMPESTRIS CAMPESTKIS (VieUlot)
Pious campestris Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. 24, 1818, p. 101.
(Paraguay.)
A male collected at Kilometer 80, west of Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay,
on Se^Dtember 13, 1920, was the only one secured. Two were
recorded near the Rio Paraguay at Puerto Pinasco on September 3.
At Villa Concepcion, Paraguay, on October 3, an individual at rest
in a tree continually flashed one wing to display the yellow mark-
ings below.
The Auguete Indians called this species wpaiku.
The male taken had the following measurements: Wing, 159;
tail, 106.4; exposed culmen, 34.5; tarsus, 32.1 mm.
COLAPTES CAMPESTROroES (Malherbe)
Geopicos {Colaptes Swainson) campestroides Malhekbe, Rev. Mag. Zool.,
1849, p. 541. (South Brazil.)
In habits and general appearance the pampas flicker differs little
from the familiar Colaptes auratus of the eastern United States.
The carpintero del suelo, as C. campestroides is usually known, is
found frequently in little bands that feed on the ground in open
country, dotted with trees to which the birds may fly for shelter.
Through the Chaco they were common in the open savannas, and
were also abundant through the undulating pampas and the low-
land palm forests of eastern Uruguay. Recent burns were always
attractive to them. Though formerly reported as common on the
level plains of Buenos Aires and near-by Provinces, the species may
now be almost extinct there as I sav»^ none in extended travels
through that region. (PI. 3.)
One of the call notes of the pampas flicker is a loud call strongly
suggestive of the whistle of a greater yellowlegs, especially when
heard at a distance across a marshy savanna where conditions of
situation favor such a deception. When several gather on the
trunk of a tree or a fence post, they go through many gesticulations
with nodding heads, the whole accompanied by loud ejaculations of
tvhick whick whick. Often one or both wings are extended and
retracted quickly with a sudden flash of j^ellow, as the undersurface
of the flight feathers is displayed. Another call is a harsh kiu, a
signal that carries far across the open country. In the palm groves
of Uruguay, when young flickers had recently left their nests, this
species joined the oven birds in railing at my intrusions.