234 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Ordinarily they circled about high overhead, where it was impossible 

 to reach them, and when they did descend to lower altitudes it was 

 necessary usually to take a snapshot at them overhead as they dashed 

 past little openings in the tree tops. Under these circumstances con- 

 siderable time and ammunition Avere expended before one was finally 

 secured. The birds spent much time in circling high in air, but de- 

 scended at intervals to flash past dead stubs in which I supposed 

 they would nest later. Often they flew about in trios and frequently 

 were seen in pairs. Their wing motion was extremely rapid, and 

 when sufficient momentum had been gained they scaled rapidly along 

 with set wings. During cold, rainy weather a few appeared about 

 the lagoon at Kilometer 110, perhaps driven in here by unfavorable 

 feeding grounds in other regions. Their usual call note was a low 

 chu chu chu chu^ followed by a rattling chipper. On September 30, 

 on the Cerro Lorito, I found them circling about a little clearing, in 

 which there were one or two dead trees. The Anguete Indians called 

 this species mee tset tse he. 



The skin preserved, an adult female, measures as follows: Wing, 

 127.5; tail, 37; exposed culmen, 4; tarsus, 11.5 mm. Swifts of this 

 genus have been recorded seldom from Paraguay, while the names 

 under which they are given are so involved that it is difficult to place 

 them. My specimens have been identified in accordance with Hell- 

 mayr's treatment of the South American forms of Chaetura" 



Order PASSERIFORMES 

 Family DENDROCOLAPTIDAE 



DENDROCOLAPTES PICUMNUS Liditenstcin 



Dendrocolaptes Picvmnns Lichtenstein, Abh. Kon. Akad. Wiss. Berlin for 

 1818-19 (pub. 1820), p. 202. (Brazil.) 



An adult female shot in heavy forest on the Cerro Lorito opposite 

 Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay, was the only one seen. This specimen 

 has fine shaft streaks of whitish on the feathers of the back, a char- 

 acter that, according to Hellmayr, is one that differentiates D. picv/m- 

 nus from the closely allied D. intermedius Berlepsch. The latter 

 species is said also to have the head browner and back more reddish 

 brown. Hellmayr^* has recorded D. picumnus from Bernalcue, 

 Paraguay, and there are other less definite records for Paraguay. 



My specimen was secured as it clung to the base of a tree above a 

 large colony of ants, on which it fed eagerly, hopping and sidling 



" Verb. Ornith. Ges. Bayern, vol. 8, 1908, p. 145. 



"Abh. Kon. Bayerischen Akad. Wiss., II Kl., vol. 22, 1906, p. 632. 



