BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 265 



grown with saw grass. Though the birds were rather wrenlike in 

 action they were less shy than some other marsh-inhabiting 

 Furnariids, perhaps because this was their breeding season. One 

 brood of young was already on the wing, as two birds in juvenal 

 plumage were shot on February 5 and 7, but the adults were pre- 

 paring for a second breeding period, as a female taken February 5 

 was laying, and males secured February 5 and 7 were in breeding 

 condition. These spinetails rested often in the tops of the saw- 

 grass clumps where their light-colored breasts were easily visible 

 at some distance, or at any alarm came out with jerking tails on 

 lower perches to chip at me anxiously. Males had a harsh little 

 song that may be represented by the syllables chree-a chree-a 

 chree-a chree-chree-chree^ given indifferently on the wing or from 

 a perch. Adults taken were in very worn plumage, probably from 

 abrasion among the stiff grass stems among which they lived. 

 Specimens in juvenal plumage lack the yellow throat patch and 

 rufous wing coverts of adults, and have a more distinct buffy wash 

 over the entire plumage, noticeable especially in the superciliary 

 stripe and the breast. 



SIPTORNIS PYRRHOPHIUS PYRRHOPHIUS (YieUIot) 



Dendrocopus pyrrliophius Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. 26, 1818, 

 p. lis. (Paraguay.) 



The present form is one of rather general distribution in suitable 

 localities in central and northern Argentina and in Uruguay. It 

 was encountered at the following points: Las Palmas, Chaco, July 

 15 to 31, 1920 (females taken July 15 and 26) ; Riacho Pilaga, For- 

 mosa, August 7 to 18 (adult male, August 7) ; Victorica, Pampa, 

 December 23 to 29 (immature male and female, December 23 and 

 24) ; San Vicente, Uruguay, January 27 to 31, 1921 (immature male, 

 January 28, adult and immature females, January 29, immature 

 female, January 30) ; Lazcano, Uruguay, February 5 to 8 (adult 

 female, shot February 5) ; Tapia, Tucuman, April 6 to 13 (immature 

 male, April 9, female, April 8). No specimens of S. p. striaticeps 

 from Bolivia have been seen, but according to Hellmayr in this 

 form the streaking of the head extends down on the nape, the 

 secondaries and tertials are bordered with cinnamon or russet, and 

 the flanks are buffy brown. Typical pyrrhophius has the streaking 

 on the head extended only over the occiput, the secondaries and 

 tertials without conspicuous rufous margins and the flanks grayish 

 brown. The coloration of the tail in the series of pyrrhophius at 

 hand is variable. In many the inner web of the median rectrix is 

 almost wholly brown, but the extent of this color is variable as in 

 several it is restricted to a faint terminal spot. I can distinguish 

 no constant differences amone the birds from the different areas 



