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 virginianus) 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 VIRGINIANUS (Gm.).
(WHIP-POOR-WILL.)
Chordeiles virginianus, 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 8·5 inches, wing 7·8, tail 4·0. Female similar, but throat-band tawny and no white band on the tail.
Hab. North and South America.
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 (Paraná); Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 184 (Buenos Ayres); Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 24 (Entrerios); Withington, Ibis, 1888, p. 467 (Lomas de Zamora).