yyO PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY. 



A. A. Lane found it in Chili and writes of its habits as follows : 

 "These peculiar birds, as a rule, occur only in the forest districts of the 

 south, but I was informed that they migrate a short distance to the north 

 in the winter-time. 



"They frequent the densest undergrowth, especially the qidla, and are 

 rarely seen, as they are very retiring by nature. They have a somewhat 

 shrill piping note, heard more frequently at sunset, and kept up continu- 

 ously in the same key. It was the only note I heard them utter. They 

 are termed 'Colilargo' by the natives. 



"I observed some young ones, having apparently just left the nest, 

 about the middle of February near Rio Bueno. There were at least four 

 in company." (Birds of Chili, p. 39, 1897.) 



M. J. Nicoll says: "I saw and shot two examples of this curious wren- 

 like bird at Gray's Harbour. They were in the most dense undergrowth, 

 and were so tame that I could not get more than four or five yards from 

 them: the first I blew to pieces and the other I lost in the undergrowth. 

 The enormously long tail is held straight out behind, not cocked up. 

 The cry is much like the call-note of our Wren." (Orn. Jour. Voy. 

 round World, Ibis, Jan. 1904, p. 46.) 



Genus PHLCEOCRYPTES Cabanis & Heine. 



Type. 



Phlceocryptes Cab. et Hein. Mus. Hein. ii. p. 26 (1859) . P. melanops. 

 Geographical Range. — Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, Chili ; Uruguay, Ar- 

 gentina, Patagonia. 



Phlceocryptes melanops melanops (Vieillot). 



Sylvia melanops Vieillot, N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xi. p. 232 (181 7), based 



on Azara's "Escapulario chorreado" (Paraguay). 

 Synallaxis dorsomacnlatus d'Orb. et Lafr. Syn. Av. p. 21. 



Description. — Adult male, P. U. O. C. 7945, Rio Chico de Santa Cruz, 

 Patagonia, March 16, 1898. A. E. Colburn Coll. Total length, 5.25 

 inches; wing, 2.25; culmen, .60; tail, 1.95; tarsus, 1.05. Upper parts 

 dull black becoming olive brown on the lower back and rump, the upper 

 tail coverts edged with black ; each feather of the back with a white shaft 

 streak becoming buff on the hind neck, and sides of the neck strongly 

 buff; a buffy superciliary stripe below which is a black stripe ; wings dull 



