244 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Near Zapala the miner frequented sandy areas along the slopes of 

 little vallej^s. On December 9 I noted a male standing in the 

 entrance of a nesting burrow, excavated in the face of a low-cut 

 bank, a tunnel without apparent end, as some mammal had attempted 

 to dig it out without success, and after considerable labor I aban- 

 doned the task myself without having reached the nest cavity. 



GEOSITTA CUNICULARIA FISSIEOSTRIS (Kittlitz) 



Alauda. fissirostris Kittlitz, Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersbourg, Div. 

 Sav.. vol. 2, 1835, p. 468, pi. 3. (Valparaiso.) 



An adult female, taken at Concon, Chile, April 25, 1921, is allotted 

 here on geographic grounds. In the poor series at hand I am 

 unable to assign definite characters differentiating this alleged race 

 from typical cunicularia, except that it appears faintly grayer. 



GEOSITTA RUFIPENNIS (Burmeister) 



OeoMmon rufipennis Burmeister, Jonrn. fiir. Ornith., 1860, p. 249. 

 ("Parana." Dabheno** has substituted Cordillera de Mendoza.) 



A female of this species, shot at an elevation of about 1,500 meters 

 above Potrerillos, Mendoza, on March 18, 1921, has been difficult to 

 place subspecifically in the light of available material. Burmeister 

 in his original description assigned Parana as the locality for his 

 specimens, although, as Doctor Dabbene has shown, the bird is not 

 known to visit the central pampas. For this reason Dabbene sub- 

 stitutes the Cordillera of Mendoza as the type-locality. Further- 

 ftiore, Dabbene distinguishes a form from Tucuman with cream- 

 colored underparts as G. r. hurmeisteri. The bird described by 

 Burmeister was said to be " rothlichgrau " on the undersurf ace. 

 Dabbene states that the Museo Nacional in Buenos Aires has a 

 specimen collected in Mendoza during the time of Burmeister, and 

 on this apparently bases his assignment of the type-locality. Mene- 

 gaux and Hellmayr^^ write that Burmeister's types preserved at 

 Halle are " blanc grisatre." Dabbene considers these as representa- 

 tive of his G. r. hurmeisteri. A series of skins is needed to straighten 

 out the forms involved successfully. My specimen from Potrerillos 

 has a very slight wash of vinaceous buff on the otherwise grayish- 

 white breast and abdomen and is distinctly paler than birds from 

 Chubut. At the same time it is not cream colored below. It is 

 possible that it is near the northern form. 



At Potrerillos this bird was seen occasionally among low brush 

 on rocky slopes, from wliicli it flew out when alarmed with an 

 undulating flight to seek other cover. The reddish brown of wings 



'8 An. Mus. Nac. Hist. Nat. Buenos Aires, vol. 30, July 11, 1919, p. 133. 

 "M^m. See. Hist. Nat. Aiitun, vol. 19, 1906, p. 46. 



