BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUx^Y, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 189 



TAPERA NAEVIA CHOCHI (Vieillot) 



Coccyzus choclii Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. S, ISIT, p. 272. 

 ( Paraguay. ) 



On April 8, 1921, near Tapia, Tucuman, one of these birds 

 flushed from the ground at the border of a thicket and alighted on 

 a low branch among leaA^es, where it peered out Avith extended neck, 

 raised crest and slowly vibrating tail. It proved to be a juvenile 

 female barely grown. The culmen and base of the maxilla were 

 blackish mouse gray; remainder of maxilla buffy brown; mandible 

 tea green; iris smoke gray; tarsus and toes vetiver green, shaded 

 on side of tarsus with castor gray. 



It is recorded by Hartert and Venturi '^^ that this strange cuckoo 

 foists its domestic cares on certain smaller birds, notably on species 

 of Synallaxis. Dr. H. von Ihering"" reports a young bird secured 

 from the rounded stick nest of Synallaxis spixi, while in another 

 nest of this same species he secured an incubated egg, larger and 

 duller in color than others in the set, that contained an unmis- 

 takable embryo of Tapera. Fonseca*^^ also records it as parasitic 

 on SynuUaxis spixi, and says that as the cuckoo is too large to enter 

 the globular inclosed nest of its host it tears a hole in one side 

 to give access to the nest cavity where it deposits its egg. 



The specimen from- Tapia is in juvenal plumage, with spotted 

 crown and barred throat. The usage of Bangs and Penard^- has 

 been followed in recognizing a large southern form of Tapera, 

 though I find specimens from Venezuela as large as those from the 

 south. Individual variation in color in this species, with condition 

 of plumage is extensive. 



MICROCOCCYX CINEREUS (Vieillot) 



Coccyzus cinereus Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. 8. 1817, p. 272. 

 (Paraguay.) 



The first of these cuckoos was recorded at Victorica, Pampa, on 

 December 23, 1920, when an adult female was shot as it rested in 

 the sun in the top of a tree. The note of tiiis individual was a 

 sonorous cow-io cow-w cow cow, in tone like the call of the. yellow- 

 billed cuckoo but without the rattling, clucking termination usual 

 in the song of that bird. At Tapia, Tucuman, on April 7 and 8, 

 several were seen and three taken, including an adult pair and a 

 juvenile female not fully grown. They were found in rather dense, 

 dry scrub in a region of barrancas. The birds were alert but silent 



°9Nov. ZooL, vol. IG, 1909, p. 230. 

 ^oRev. Mus. Paulista, vol. 9, 1914, pp. 391-395. 

 " Rev. Mus. Paulista, vol. 13, 1923, pp. 785-787. 

 8- Bull. Mus. Comp. ZooL, vol. 62, April, 1918, p. 50. 



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