394 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM VOL. 97 
would be the Amazon River. Gyldenstolpe (Kungl. Svenska Vet.- 
Akad. Handl., vol. 22, No. 3, 1945, p. 39) finds birds from the south 
side of the Amazon are large like the Paraguayan carau. 
Family PSOPHIIDAE: Trumpeters 
PSOPHIA CREPITANS CREPITANS Linnaeus: Common Trumpeter 
Psophia crepitans LINNAEUS, Systema naturae, ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 154 (South 
America= Cayenne, ez Barrére). 
SPECIMENS COLLECTED 
1 ad. 2, Brazil, Serra Imeri, near Salto do Hud, December 5, 1930. 
1 ad. o, Venezuela, Brazo Casiquiare, February 18, 1931. 
1 ad. o, 2 ad. 9, Venezuela, Cerro Yapacana, Upper Orinoco, Base Camp, 
322 feet, March 17, 1931. 
The male taken on March 17 was in breeding condition when 
collected. 
The common trumpeter occurs from the Orinoco Valley and its 
associated drainage system of southern Venezuela to the three Guianas 
and to northern Brazil north of the Amazon, west as far as the Rio 
Negro. Hellmayr and Conover (Catalogue of the birds of the Amer- 
icas, pt. 1, No. 1, 1942, p. 309) have compared Rio Negro with Guiana 
birds and find no constant differences. 
Holt (Nat. Geogr. Mag., vol. 64, Nov. 1933, p. 606) writes of this 
species that grunter would be a more descriptive name than trumpeter. 
‘‘Kasily tamed, such birds may be seen on the main streets of almost 
any backwoods village, where they lord it over domestic fowl of 
every sort...” 
Family RALLIDAE: Rails, ete. 
ARAMIDES CAJANEA CAJANEA (P. L. S. Miiller): Cayenne Wood Rail 
Fulica cajanea P. L. S. MtitteR, Natursystem, Suppl., 1776, p. 119 (Cayenne, 
ex Daubenton, Planches enluminées .. . , pl. 352). 
SPECIMENS COLLECTED 
1 ad. o&, Venezuela, Raudal Corocoro, Brazo Casiquiare, February 9, 1931. 
1 ad. o’, Venezuela, Cerro Yapacana, Upper Orinoco, April 3, 1931. 
The two specimens are quite unequal in size, the one from the 
Casiquiare being considerably larger than the Orinoco bird, but the 
differences are matched by others in the series examined. The larger 
bird is also a little darker above and slightly so below. 
The nominate race of this species occurs over much of South 
America from southern Costa Rica to Argentina and Uruguay. It 
is indeed surprising that a bird that ‘breaks up” into half a dozen 
races in Central America should remain so unvarying over an enor- 
mous range in South America. It is possible, of course, that larger 
series will reveal geographic forms there too, but so far the material 
does not show any. 
