﻿498 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM tol. loo 



The male agrees fairly well with the type, but it is in fresher plum- 

 age; the type is a molting bird. The female is partially albinistic 

 in both wings, the albinism taking the rather vmusual pattern of 

 forming external margins to the bases of both webs of the primaries 

 and secondaries and occupying more than the proximal half of the 

 latter feathers. 



This bird was common at the edges of the wet woods at Caicara; 

 although it was rare around Cantam-a. The call notes commonly 

 heard were a loud harsh chick-chick-chick and a chip-chip-chip-chip, 

 which reminded the collector greatly of the call of the eastern chip- 

 munk {Tamias striatus fisheri) of the United States, 



Although the gonads were not enlarged in the specimen collected 

 on December 19, these birds were observed early in January placing 

 more twigs on their bulky nests. 



XENOPS RUTILUS HETEKURUS Cabanis and Heine 



Xenops heteruriis Cabanis and Heine, Museum Heineanum, vol. 2, 1859, p. 33 

 ("Columbian" = Bogota, Salvin, Ibis, 1869, p. 319). 



SPECIMEN COLLECTED 



1 c?", Caicara, November 4, 1947; gonads enlarged; iris light brown, bill dark 

 brown with base of mandible flesh color, feet dark blue-gray. 



Hellmayr (Catalogue of the birds of the Americas, pt. 4, 1925, pp. 

 240-241) writes that in Venezuela this species occurs only in the moun- 

 tain ranges from Merida to Caracas and Bermudez. Since Caicara 

 is hardly a highland locality, the range of the bird is apparently more 

 extensive than statements in the hterature indicate. 



Hellmayr also mentions that birds from Peru and from western 

 Venezuela (Merida, Caracas, Carabobo) are like those from Colombia 

 in size but that specimens from Bermudez and Trinidad seem to be 

 smaller. The present specimen has the wing 68, tail 46, and culmen 

 from base 13.5 mm. long and agrees with Peruvian specimens (a male 

 from Matchu Picchu in comparable plumage condition has the wing 

 68, tail 44, and culmen from the base 15 mm.). 



This species was observed once in the densest part of the lowland 

 seasonal forest at Caicara where the present example was collected. 



It was heard to utter a trilling call. 



Family FORMICAPJIDAE: Ant-thrushes 



TASABA MAJOR SEMIFASCIATUS (Cabanis) 



Diallactes semifasciatus Cabanis, Journ. fiir Orn., vol. 20, 1872, p. 234 ("Pard, 

 Guiana and Venezuela"; Para accepted as type locality, auct. Hellmayr, 

 Nov. Zool., vol. 12, 1905, p. 283). 



SPECIMENS COLLECTED 



1 cf, 1 9 , Caicara, November 2 and 6, 1947; gonads small in cT, slightly 

 enlarged in ? , which had an evident brood patch; iris bright red in cf , orange in 



