116 BULLETIN 133^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The two taken are males in molt from an immature to adult 

 plumage. Old feathers still appear in wings and tail, but elsewhere 

 have been replaced, though all of the new feathers are not fully- 

 grown. The narrow bars on the under surface are mainly dark 

 gray, or grayish brown with little mixture of rufous. These two 

 measure as follows: Wing, 164-171; tail, llT-123.5; culmen from 

 cere, 9.6-10 ; tarsus, 47-50 mm. 



Swann - treats Accipiter salvini Ridgway from Venezuela as a 

 subspecies of A. erythronemius. 



Order GALLIFORMES 

 Family CRACIDAE 



ORTALIS CANICOLLIS (Wagler) 



% 



Penelope canicolUs Wagler, Isis, 1830, p. 1112. (Paraguay.) 



Nine specimens, all adult, secured in the Chaco were taken as 

 follows: Riacho Pilaga, Formosa, August 13, 14 (one skeleton), 

 18 (one in alcohol), and Kilometer 80, Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay, 

 September 6, 10, and 20 (two). At Puerto Pinasco the birds were 

 found inland to Kilometer 200. Birds from the two localities are 

 similar; males are larger and usually paler on the posterior dorsal 

 surface than females. A female taken August 13 at the Riacho 

 Pilaga had the soft parts as follows: Bill fawn color; soft oper- 

 culum over nostrils, and space behind hair brown; bare skin on 

 sides of head fawn color, on throat tinged with Pompeian red; iris 

 army brown; tarsus and toes avellaneous; claws fuscous. The skin 

 of the throat was more heavily tinged with red in males than in 

 females. 



The charata as Ortalis canicolUs is usually Icnown was a com- 

 mon species in the more extensive forests of the wilder, less-fre- 

 quented portions of the Chaco. It was typically a tree-haunting 

 bird that frequented open tree limbs, the borders of trails or edges 

 of groves where dense cover close at hand furnished shelter at any 

 alarm. They were found in bands that included from four to eight 

 individuals, until in September they separated in pairs for the pur- 

 pose of breeding. On days with high wind when hunting in suit- 

 able sections I saw them in numbers, though ordinarily the slight 

 sounds that I made in passing through the monte were sufficient to 

 cause the alert birds to hide. Frequently flocks descended to feed on 

 or near the ground, but when alarmed rose at once into the tree- 

 tops. Once I startled one badly in a forest path so that it rose with 

 roaring wings like a tinamou or pheasant but usually the flight was 

 silent. When alarmed, if low down they towered with rapidly 



^Syn. Accipitres, ed. 2, pt. 1, Sept. 28, 1921, p. 58. 



