(PAINTED SNIPE.)
+Rhynchæa hilarii+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 504 (Rio Paraná).
+Rhynchæa semicollaris+, _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 144
(Buenos Ayres); _iid. Nomencl._ p. 145; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877,
p. 199 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 403 (Chupat); _Barrows, Auk_,
1884, p. 314 (Entrerios); _Seebohm, Plovers_, p. 459, pl. xix.;
_Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 472 (Lomas de Zamora).
_Description._--Above dark brown; head black, with a central and
two lateral longitudinal bands of buffy white; wings ashy blackish,
spotted with buffy white and barred with black; coverts with large
oval spots of clear white: beneath, throat and breast dark brownish,
with a conspicuous white neck-collar on each side; belly white,
flanks tinged with buffy; bill greenish, reddish at tip; feet
flesh-colour: whole length 8·0 inches, wing 4·1, tail 2·0. _Female_
similar, but slightly larger and more brightly coloured.
_Hab._ Southern parts of South America, from Peru to Patagonia.
In the Argentine provinces this bird is called _Dormilon_ (Sleepy-head),
in allusion to its dull habits, which are like those of a nocturnal
species. It passes the daylight hours concealed in dense reed-beds,
rising only when almost trodden on; the flight is feeble and erratic,
the rapid wing-flutterings alternating with intervals of gliding, and
after going a short distance the bird drops again like a Rail into
the rushes. From its behaviour on the ground, also in flying, when it
appears dazed with the light, I have no doubt that it is altogether
nocturnal or crepuscular in its habits. It is solitary and resident, and
may be met with in small numbers in every marsh or stream in the Plata
district, where its favourite reed-beds afford it cover. It appears to
have no cry or note of any kind, for even when frightened from its nest
and when the eggs are on the point of hatching it utters no sound. The
eggs never exceed two in number and are placed on the wet ground, often
without any lining, among the close grass and herbage near the water.
They are oblong and bluntly pointed at the smaller end, and have a white
ground-colour, but so densely marked and blotched with black that in
some cases they appear to be almost wholly of that colour, or like black
eggs flecked with white.