(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
(Paraná); _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 11·0 inches, wing 9·5, tail 4·9.
_Female_ similar, but without the white ends to the tail-feathers.
_Hab._ South America.
The specific name of this Goatsucker is from the Guaraní word _Ñacundá_,
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
scraped 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 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.