The a 



MERICAN 



M 



J 



USEUM JOURNAL 



Volume XVII 



MARCH, ]!)r 



Nu:mbek 3 



A Search for Scytalopus 



By LEO E. M I L L E R 



Leader of the American Museum's South American Expedition, 1913-1916 ' 

 Illustrations from photographs bj- the Author 



THE little wrenlike birds of the 

 genus Scytalopus, known com- 

 monly as "tapacolos," are per- 

 hap.< among the most difficult to collect 

 of any species in South America, and 

 for this reason they are invariably only 

 poorly represented in museum col- 

 lections. Native collectors, hunting 

 mainly with blowguns, have gathered 

 many thousands of birds, the greater 

 numljer of which have eventually 

 found their way to millinery establish- 

 ments and scientific institutions in 

 many parts of the world ; but usually 

 only those of brilliant plumage, and 

 others which could be taken with little 

 difficulty, have been collected. The 

 small, slate-colored or blackish tapa- 

 colos, found only in the densest of sub- 

 tropical forests or among the tangled 

 vegetation bordering bleak, frigid jxi- 

 rainos, have usually been overlooked. 

 This is not to be wondered at when we 

 find how seldom even the trained field 

 naturalist of today finds it possible to 

 lure the tiny, feathered creature from 

 its secure retreat among the mosses, 

 roots, and ferns to which its mouselike 

 habits confine it, and how rarely he 

 succeeds in recovering the inconspicu- 

 ously colored bird after it has been 

 shot. Even after a long, patient search 



bas revealed the specimen lodged some- 

 where in the deep stratum of matted 

 plants, it is by no means sure of reach- 

 ing the museum; I have heard of in- 

 stances where birds, slipping from the 

 hunter's hands and dropping at his 

 feet, have been forever lost in the riot 

 of vegetation which carpets the ground. 



After completing eight months' 

 work in Bolivia, the expedition started 

 for the Argentine Eepublic. Sucre had 

 been our headquarters for a number of 

 weeks, and to reach La Quiaca, on the 

 Argentine frontier, it was necessary to 

 traverse the high Bolivian plateau a dis- 

 tance of more than three hundred miles. 



During the dry season motor cars 

 are run from Sucre to Potosi in one 

 day's time. A railroad connects the 

 latter place with a small station a short 

 distance this side of Tupiza, and from 

 this point one may reach La Quiaca via 

 carriage in two days. During the 

 rainy season, however, both automo- 

 bile and carriage service are suspended ; 

 and the difficulty of twice securing 

 mules on which to cover the two 

 stretches of road between railway ter- 

 minals, and the delays and other in- 

 conveniences, are so great that we 

 decided to travel the entire distance by 



^ Mr. Howarth S. Boyle, assistant in the American Museum, accompanied Mr. Miller on the South 

 American E.\pedition, 1915-1916 



157 



