(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).
_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 7·5 inches,
wing 5·3, tail 4·0. _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 europæus_) 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 Fé on the Paraná, which is now in the
British Museum.