Vol. XXIII, pp 107-108 June 24, 1910 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



A NEW TINAMOU FROM LAKE TITICACA. 

 BY OUTRAM BANGS. 



Among the birds collected for the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology by Mr. S. Garman at Lake Titicaca, where in 1875 he 

 accompanied Dr. Alexander Agassiz in his explorations of this 

 lofty sheet of water, were two examples of a Nothura. 



Dr. J. A. Allen, in his list of the birds of the expedition 

 (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Vol. Ill, p. 355, July, 1876), referred 

 these specimens to Notlioprocta hranickii Tacz, thus obscuring 

 until now the fact of the occurrence of a Nothura on the western 

 side of the great Andean divide. 



As might be expected from its isolated position — no other 

 member of the genus occurring nearer it than in the high plateau 

 of southern Bolivia east of the Cordillera Real — the Lake Titi- 

 caca " Perdiz " is a very distinct species. In memory of the 

 great naturalist who undertook the expedition, during which 

 the specimens were secured, it may be known as — 



Nothura agassizii sp. nov. 



Tiipe from Moho, on the iiortheru border of Lake Titicaca, adult (not 

 sexed) No. 24,295 Coll. Mus. Comp. Zool. Collected (between Jan. 1 

 and March 5) 1S75 by S. Garman. 



C/iarflc/er.s.— Belonging to the section of the genus characterized by 

 very fine spottings and vcrmiculations of the upper parts, that inchides 

 N. boraquira (Spix) of Brazil and western Argentina and iV. darvnni 

 Gray of Patagonia; upper parts much blacker than in either of these, 

 the vermiculations very fine and tlie pale edges of the feathers very 

 narrow; under parts pale— exactly bufi" of Ridgway; the dark markings 

 on chest and fore neck very pronounced and consisting in wide trans- 

 verse bars of dusky directly across the feather; whole lower sides and 

 flanks innnaculate, the dusky markings stopping at sides of breast. 

 Size about as in N. boraquira, but the tarsus shorter and the toes very 

 short. Type, unsexed, wing, 140 ; tarsus, 29.5 ; middle toe with claw, 24.5 ; 

 exposed culmen, 16.5. 



27— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XXIII, 1910. (107) 



