292 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



would run out from the shelter of bushes with tail erect and wings 

 drooped to watch me curiously. 



The song of this sj^ecies is loud, and, though simple in its nature,. 

 was rather pleasing in contrast to the harsh surroundings among 

 which it was heard. It may be represented by the syllables took took 

 took took took^ repeated rapidly. In running Teledromas takes 

 very long steps. In a series of tracks that I measured I found the 

 steps to average 150 mm. apart, a remarkable distance when it is 

 considered that the length of the bird from bill to tail is less than 

 175 mm. 



On the evening of November 25, while setting a line of mouse- 

 traps along a small barranca, I flushed a female from the entrance 

 of a nest tunnel, an opening near the top of perpendicular cut bank 

 in loose soil, 3 feet above the bottom of the dry channel. The round 

 tunnel, from 60 to 75 mm. in diameter, led back for a distance of 

 375 mm. to end in a chamber 150 mm. in diameter, with the bottom 

 lined with bits of grass that formed a roughly, cup-shaped nest. The 

 two eggs, in which incubation had begun, were white in color, with- 

 out markings. One was broken in transportation. The other meas- 

 ures, in millimeters, as follows : 26.2 by 20.5. 



The genus Teledromas Wetmore and Peters^* for the present 

 species is distinguished from Rhinocrypta Gray by its smooth, un- 

 crested head, relatively stronger, heavier bill; short under tail cov- 

 erts ; and relatively longer hind toe and claw. In addition, it will be 

 noted that while T. fuscus made its nest in a tunnel in the side of a 

 cut bank, R. lanceolata^ as I have noted elsewhere, deposited its eggs 

 in a stick nest in a low shrub. 



MELANOPAREIA MAXIMILIANI ARGENTINA (Hellmayr) 



Synallaxis maximiliani argentina Hellmayr, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 19^ 

 Apr. 29, 1907, p. 74. (Norco, Tucuman, Argentina.) 



Four specimens of this bird secured (three skins and one in alco- 

 hol) from the localities listed below, in the absence of comparative 

 material, are referred on the basis of range to the subspecies argen- 

 tina. W. D. Miller ^^ has with reason removed the present genus 

 from the Formicariidae to the Rhinocryptidae, in part on inf9rma- 

 tion from the bodies of the present specimens (preserved in alcohol) 

 as when, at his request, I examined these I found that they pos- 

 sessed four notches on the posterior border of the metasternum. It 

 may be added that the habits of these birds are not radically dif- 

 ferent from those of other tapaculos. Melanopareia ^^ was first taken 



e* rroc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 35, Mar. 20, 1922, p. 41. 



*5 In notes not yet published. 



8" Reichenbach, Handb. Spec. Ornith., August, 1853, p. 164. 



