BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 289 



An adult male, secured near Victorica, Pampa, December 27, 1920, 

 hopped about in the bushes at the border of a thicket Avith the tail 

 held like that of a gnatcatcher at a jaunty angle above the back. 



The bill in this specimen was black ; iris hessian brown ; tarsus and 

 toes dark neutral gray. 



EUSCARTHMUS MELORYPHUS MELORYPHUS Wied 



Euscarthmus meloryphus Wied, Beitr. Nat. Brasilien, vol. 3, 1831, p. 947. 

 ("Campo geral " and the border line between the Provinces of Minas 

 Geraes and Bahia, Brazil.) 



An adult male secured at Las Palmas, Chaco, on July 23, 1920, 

 does not seem to differ markedly from a specimen of this bird in the 

 Field Museum from Macaco Secco, near Andarahy, Brazil. In the 

 skin from Las Palmas dull olive-green tips on the central crown 

 feathers almost entirely obscure the ochraceous-tawny color of the 

 central crown stripe. 



This small bird was encountered in swampy woods in a heavy 

 growth of caraguata (Aechmea disticliantlia) , a spiny-leaved plant 

 that covered the forest floor, where it worked about a few inches 

 from the ground, hopping slowly over the broad plant leaves or 

 fluttering feebly from perch to perch in its search for food. 



Oberholser^° has indicated that, through a type fixation by Gray 

 in 1840 (List Gen. Birds, p. 32), the genus Euscarthmus Wied, 1831, 

 is applicable to the present species, replacing Hapalocercus Cubanis, 

 1847. Mr. Ridgway ^'^ considers this genus as possibly a member of 

 the Formicariidae. It is certainly not a true flycatcher, and is 

 included tentatively at this point. 



Family RHINOCRYPTIDAE "^ 



SCYTALOPUS FUSCUS Gould 



Scytalopus fuscus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, February, 1837, p. 89. 

 (Chile.) 



An immature male in full plumage, secured April 27, 1921, near 

 Concon, Chile, was the only bird of this group encountered. While 

 crossing a deep gulch with a small stream at the bottom, heavily 

 shaded by a dense growth of trees, the individual in question, in its 

 dull plumage barely visible in the somber shadows, came silently into 



««Auk, 1923, p. 327. 



«^ U. S. Nat. Mus., Bull. 50, pt. 4, p. 339. 



'^Apparently the first family designation for the tapaculos is that of Lafresnaye, 

 who, in an Essai de I'Ordre dcs Passcreaux (the first part of which seems to have been 

 published at Falaise in 1838, though doubt attaches to the date of succeeding sections), 

 has as his third family (p. 13) the Rbinomidae. This, Lafresnaye continues, has for 

 its type the genus Rhinomye Geoffroy, established in 1832, an evident emendation of 

 Rhinomya. With Rhinocrypta replacing Rhinomya as a generic term the family name 

 for the group becomes Rhinocryptidae instead of Pteroptochidae or Hylactidae, two 

 terms that have been in common use. 



