V0 1889."'] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 133 



22. Geositta antarctica Landb. (" Weigm. Archiv., Jahr. 46, i, 275") ? 



Elizabeth Island, one specimen. 



This bird is referred, with doubt, to G. antarctica for the reason that 

 it does not agree with either of the six species given in the Nomenclator 

 Avium Neotropicalium (four of which are in the National Museum col- 

 lection), nor with any of the species not therein mentioned, with the 

 possible exception of G. antarctica, a description of which I have not 

 been able to consult.* 



Compared with G. cunicularia (Vieill.), G. crassirostris Scl., G. Isabel- 

 Una (Ph. and Landb.), G.fasciata (Ph. and Laudb.), G.frobeni (Pb. and 

 Laudb.t), and G. maritima Lafr. and D'Orb., with all of which it has 

 been directly compared, the bird in question is found to differ strik- 

 ingly from them all in much longer wings and tail and shorter bill, 

 which raises the suspicion that it may not be a Geositta at all, though 

 it certainly cannot be referred to the allied genus Cinclodes, or any 

 other thus far characterized. Of the species uamed above it comes 

 much nearest to G. cunicularia, both in size and coloration; but 

 the bill is not more than two-thirds as long, the wing about .70 of an 

 inch longer (with primaries .85 of an inch longer than longest tertials, 

 instead of barely exceeding them in length), and the tail .40 of an inch 

 longer. The coloration is, at first glance, very similar to that of G- 

 cunicularia, the upper tail coverts being of exactly the same buffy whit- 

 ish; but the upper surface is more ashy, the tail-feathers much darker, 

 the breast very faintly instead of heavily marked, and the inner webs of 

 the primaries a dull isabella color instead of bright cinnamon, while 

 the secondaries (except tertials) are wholly uniform drab, without the 

 broad subtermiual dusky band of G. cunicularia. 



Should the species prove to be distinct from G. antarctica, I propose 

 to name it G. longipennis.% 



* The reference quoted above, the source of which I have forgotteu, is evidently 

 incorrect, no such bird being mentioned in Weigmau's " Archives" for 1846. 



t G. frobeni (Certhijanda frobeni, Ph. and Landb., Weigm. Archiv., 1865, 62 ; Geositta 

 frobeni Tacz., Orn. du Perou, n, 95) is perfectly distinct, differing from all tbe other 

 species, as correctly stated by its describers, in the distinctly white color of the basal 

 half of the tail, nearly the whole of the outer feather being of that color. The U. 

 S. National Museum possesses a single, very imperfect, skin obtained by Mr. Walter 

 S. Church at Andahuaylas, Ayacucho, Peru, October 14, 1864. 



tWith the following characters : 

 Geositta longipennis sp. nov. 



Sp. Char.— Adult female (type, No. 116173, Point Elizabeth, Straits of Magellan, 

 January 20, 1888; U. S. S. Albatross): Above dull brownish gray, the forehead and 

 hind neck indistinctly spotted or mottled with pale grayish buffy ; upper tail-coverts 

 buffy whitish; general color of closed wing drab, the middle and posterior row of 

 lesser coverts broadly but not sharply margined at tips with pale grayish buffy; 

 primary coverts dusky terminally, their tips margined with pale grayish buffy; ter- 

 tials with a wedge-shaped basal patch of cinnamon-drab, succeeded by a somewhat 

 V-shaped patch of dusky, terminal and exterior portion drab, narrowly edged with 

 whitish ; secondaries and four iuner primaries uniform drab, the color exactly the 



