﻿VENEZUELAN ORNITHOLOGY — FRIEDMANN AND SMITH 435 



blackish, tarsi dull pink; gizzard contained small fish {y* inch) and shrimp; prob- 

 ably a subadult although adult plumage complete. 



Although recorded in all types of habitat wherever there was some 

 water and a supply of food, this species was found oftenest on the 

 savanna ponds, usually in groups of five or six birds. Wlien the ponds 

 dried up to the point where aquatic life became especially vulnerable, 

 up to 50 individuals could be seen at once. They glided in at great 

 altitudes, much in the manner of vultures. The species was recorded 

 during the months of February through August and in October, 



A wounded bird was heard uttering a low, creaking note. 



Local names, "garz6n," large heron, and "gaban." 



Family THRESKIORNITHIDAE: Ibises and Spoonbills 



THERISTICUS CAUDATUS CAUDATUS (Boddaert) 



Scolopax caudatus Boddaert, Table des planches enlumin^ez, 1783, p. 57 (Cayenne, 

 ex Daubenton, Planches enlumin^es, pi. 976). 



SPECIMEN COLLECTED 



1 9 (?), Cantaura, January 1, 1948; gonads small; iris dull orange, facial skin 

 black, feet coral-red. 



This specimen and three others from northern Colombia are much 

 darker on the abdomen than three from Paraguay and Argentina and 

 are also somewhat darker on the upperparts of the body. The abdo- 

 men is dark fuscous-black in the four northern birds, between fuscous 

 and chaetura drab in the southern examples. The back averages 

 slightly more grayish in the southern birds, but this difference is 

 small. As far as can be told from the small series examined the bill 

 is shorter in the northern birds, but the present Venezuelan example 

 is either an exception in this regard or is wrongly sexed. 



Recently Todd (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 61, 1948, p. 50) 

 has described a race hyperorius from Buena Vista, Bolivia, based on 

 paler coloration below and above. This race he finds ranges from 

 eastern Bolivia and the Paraguayan Chaco and Brazil to southern 

 Argentina. Neither Todd nor the senior author has seen any actual 

 topotypes of caudatus, but, as Todd states, Salvador! (Ibis, 1900, 

 pp. 501-517) saw at least one and found it to agree with birds from 

 Venezuela and Colombia in being darker than Brazilian and Bolivian 

 examples. 



Though both races are valid, their characters are not so trenchant 

 as Todd's description seems to suggest. In response to an inquiry of 

 the senior author Dr. Zimmer looked over the material in the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History and found that on the whole north- 

 ern birds are darker than southern ones but that there is apparently 

 complete intergradation even in the two extreme areas. He stated 

 that one female from the Orinoco is as light as the southern birds. 



