AVES DENDROCOLAPTID/E. 759 



namon ; sides of body and under tail coverts darker, throat nearly white, 

 all the feathers from chin to breast with narrow brown edgings producing 

 a shell pattern. Wings nearly uniform with the back with more or less 

 tawny on the inner webs of the innermost primaries and on the outer webs 

 of the secondaries and basally on the inner web, tips slightly darker; central 

 tail feathers like the back but slightly tawny, others more dusky, the three 

 outer with pale tawny tips, nearly white on the outermost in which this color 

 extends over the entire outer web. 



Geographical Range. — Patagonia. Specimens were obtained by the 

 Princeton naturalists at Coy Inlet in October 1896, and at Rio Chico and 

 Cape Dos Vacos in March and February 1898. The length of the bill in 

 these birds varies considerably, ranging from 1.08 to 1.28. Peters found 

 it to be resident in northern Patagonia and not uncommon. "At San 

 Antonio it was fairly common in the bushes growing close to the edge of 

 the salt-marsh. In western Rio Negro I found it on the plains, up the 

 ravines and gullies, but always among bushes. It feeds on the ground 

 where its long curved bill is of great assistance in capturing the insects 

 which seem to form a large part of its diet. It is not unusual to find a 

 place in the lee of some bush where one of these birds has been feeding, 

 scratching and tearing up the surface over an area of several square feet. 

 Its usual note is a series of loud non-musical syllables given on a descend- 

 ing scale." (Bull. M. C. Z. Ixv. no. 9. p. 313.) 



W. H. Hudson writes of the habits of the species as follows: "A pair 

 of these birds (male and female) appeared in a field near my house this 

 winter ; and a month after first seeing them I succeeded in shooting both. 

 The male proved to be a trifle the larger ; but in plumage they were alike. 

 They reminded me in all their motions of the Cinclodcs fttscits, being, like 

 it, shy and ever ready to take wing, and their flight being irregular, rapid, 

 and near to the earth. The bird also sometimes alights on dry stalks, 

 but more often on the ground, hopping and jerking the tail in a startled 

 manner, and running with extraordinary swiftness over the bare places." 



Upucerthia propinqua Ridgway. 



Upticerthia propinqtia Ridgway, Proc. U. S. N. M. no. xii. p. 134 (1889) 

 (Gregory Bay, Straits of Magellan). 

 Descriptio7i. — U. S. N. M., 1889, Gregory Bay, Straits of Magellan. 

 "Similar to U. dnmetaria Geoff and d'Orb., but much grayer above, less 



