AVES DENDROCOLAPTID/E. 767 



Mr. Peters found it to be a common resident in arid northwestern Pat- 

 agonia: "This is another thoroughly terrestrial species, seldom taking 

 wing unless closely pressed ; it runs rapidly over the brushy, stony plain, 

 dodging behind rocks or doubling under cover of a bush, the tail carried 

 at an angle." He found a nest on October 3 on the ground by a cactus. 

 (Bull. M. C. Z. Ixv. no. 9, p. 314.) 



Subfamily Synallaxin^. 



Sclater, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus. xv. p. 29 (1890); Sharpe, Hand-List Bds. 

 iii. p. 51 (1901). 



Genus APHRASTURA Oberholzer. j^ -..^ -^c^.^ j<^ 



Aphrastura Oberholzer, Pro. Acad. Nat. ^^, j>) ^^jvU^^^ 



Sci. Phila. March 1899, p. 210; Class ^ -^ 



Bds. ii. 1838, p. 313 . . . . . Motacilla spinicauda Gmelin. 

 Geographical Range. — Chili and Patagonia to 40° South Latitude ; 

 Tierra del Fuego ; the Falkland Islands ; Juan Fernandez and Masufuera. 



Aphrastura spinicauda (Gmelin). 



Motacilla spinicauda Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. 1783, p. 978 (based on the 



"Thorn-tailed Warbler" of Latham, Gen. Syn. ii. pt. 2, p. 463, pi. 



Iii). (Tierra del Fuego.) 

 Synallaxis tupinieri Lesson, Voy. Coq. Zool. i. p. 665, pi. 29, fig. i 



(1826). 

 Oxynrus ornatus Swainson, Anim. in Manag. p. 324 (1837). 

 Oxyurtts australis Swainson, Jard. Nat. Libr. Birds ii. p. 318 (1837). 

 Motacilla seticaitda Forster, Descr. Anim. p. 328 (1844). (Tierra del 



Fuego.) 

 Description. — Adult male, 7616 P. U. O. C, Punta Arenas, Chili, De- 

 cember 15, 1897. J. B. Hatcher. Total length, 5.75 inches; wing, 2.50; 

 culmen, .40; tail, 2.95; tarsus, .78. Whole top of the head dark brown, 

 nearly black, some of the feathers with narrow rufous shaft streaks ; broad 

 superciliaries extending back to the neck, tawny, connected over the bill 

 by a narrow whitish frontlet, sides of face and ear coverts dusky ; back 

 cinnamon brown becoming russet or chestnut on the rump, wings blackish, 

 lesser coverts broadly edged with tawny, greater coverts narrowly edged 



