BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 287 



This ant bird was recorded at the following localities : Resistencia, 

 Chaco, July 9, 1920; Las Palmas, Chaco, July 13 to 30; Kiacho 

 Pilaga, Formosa, August 7 to 18; Formosa, August 24; Kilometer 

 25, Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay, September 1; Kilometer 80 (Puerto 

 Pinasco), September 9, 11, and 15; Kilometer 200 (in the same 

 region), September 25 ; Tapia, Tucuman, April 12, 1921. The species 

 was uncommon both at Tapia and west of Puerto Pinasco. No 

 specimens were taken in the Paraguayan Chaco, so that it is possible 

 that birds from that region belong to another form. 



MYRMORCHILUS STRIGILATUS SUSPICAX Wetmore 



Myrmorchilus strigilatus suspicax Wetmobe, Journ. Washington Acad. 

 Sci., vol. 12, Aug. 19, 1922, p. 327. (Riacho Pilaga, near Kilometor 

 182, Ferrocarril del Estado, Gobernacion de Formosa, Argentina.) 



The present form, described from specimens from the Riacho 

 Pilaga, Formosa, and the Rio Bermejo, in Argentina, differs from 

 typical strigilatus from Bahia, Brazil (the type locality) in moi'o 

 buffy superciliary stripe, browner post-ocular mark, and buffy wash 

 on the sides, flanks, and under tail coverts. Mr. Ridgway^* in 

 including Myrino7'chilus in a section containing birds with 10 

 rectrices was misled by an imperfect specimen as, in a small series 

 of skins, I find 12 tail feathers present. 



At the Riacho Pilaga, Formosa, the present form was fairly 

 common as it was recorded on August 11, 13, and 18; eight speci- 

 mens including males and females were secured on the first and 

 last of these dates. Individuals recorded but not taken near Kilo- 

 meter 80, west of Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay, on September 8 and 

 9, belong perhaps to this southern subspecies. 



These birds range in pairs in dense undergrowth where it is 

 difficult to see them, and it was several days after my arrival at the 

 Riacho Pilaga before I succeeded in obtaining specimens, though 

 they had been heard frequently. The call note of the male is a 

 loud, shrill whistle that is repeated several times, and may be 

 represented as chee-ah chee-ah chee-ah chee-ah. This is answered 

 by the female in a lower tone. On the ground they walk about 

 easily, usually under such heav}^ cover that I had mere glimpses 

 of their dark forms. When excited they bobbed up near at hand 

 with a loud thrut thrut of the wings, at times on open limbs, where 

 they rested, at intervals swinging the tail over the back like the 

 handle of a pump, frequently through an angle of 90°. 



The Anguete Indians called them keh yow. 



An adult male (taken August 11), when first killed, had the biU 

 black, becoming neutral gray at the base of the mandible; tarsus 

 mouse gray; iris dull brown, 



M Birds of North and Middle America, vol. 5, 1911, p. 13. 



