766 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY. 



brown washed with ashy, becoming rufescent on the crown, tail darker, 

 more ruddy brown, becoming dull black toward the tip, basal portion 

 largely chestnut, decreasing inwardly and wanting on the middle pair (said 

 to extend onto those feathers in the type specimen from Chupat. The 

 bird here described is the type of H. wallisi Scott which does not seem to 

 differ from the diagnosis oi phceiiicurits in any other particular); below 

 pale gray, with broad whitish shaft stripes on the feathers of the breast ; 

 throat white, flanks and under tail coverts pale buff; grayish white super- 

 ciliaries and ear coverts tinged with chestnut. Other specimens oi phceni- 

 cunis show but a trace of chestnut on the central tail feathers while other 

 specimens of wallisi show some chestnut. Evidently this is a variable 

 character. 



Geograpiiical Range. — Patagonia. 



It seems probable that this species is restricted to the sea coast region 

 of Patagonia from about 50° South Latitude northward. Durnford met 

 with what he concluded was this bird in his journey through Central Pata- 

 gonia. The Princeton Naturalists secured this species only from the foot- 

 hills of the Patagonian Andes. Darwin found the bird at several points 

 on the coast and subjoined are his remarks on what little he observed 

 in regard to its habits and mode of life. He also speaks of seeing this 

 species in the "eastern valleys of the barren Cordillera, near Mendoza." 



Darwin writes: "This bird, though forming a well-marked genus, is in 

 many respects, even in plumage, allied to Furnariiis and Opetiorhyiichus, 

 — for instance, in the streak over its eyes, in the red band on its wings 

 extending obliquely from the body to the third primary — and to some of 

 the species of these genera in its rather plumose feathers. In its general 

 manners, the same resemblance, together with some differences, always 

 struck me. It lives entirely on the ground, and generally in dry sterile 

 situations, where it haunts the scattered thickets, and often flies from one 

 to another. When skulking about the bushes it cocks up its tail, imitat- 

 ing in this respect Pteroptochos and Rhinomya. Its cry is shrill, quickly 

 reiterated, and very similar to that of several species of Furnarins and 

 Opetiorhynchiis. The stomach of one which I opened was full of Coleop- 

 tera. I procured specimens from three places on the coast of Patagonia ; 

 namely. Port Desire, St. Julian, and Santa Cruz ; but it is nowhere com- 

 mon. I likewise saw it at a considerable elevation in the eastern valleys 

 of the barren Cordillera, near Mendoza." ' 



'Voyage of " Beagle," Birds, p. 70, 1841. 



