Vol. XXXIII 

 1915 J 



Chapman, The Genus Scytalopus Gould. 411 



elevated, angular mesorhinium is shown in a slight degree by S. syl- 

 vestris and more pronouncedly by S. latcbricola, but its rounded 

 wings in connection with its lengthened tail is a feature not possessed 

 by any species of Scytalopus and it is this combination of characters of 

 bill, wings, and tail which appears to warrant its generic distinction. 



Lafresnaye's description (1. c.) of this species as "fronte et aliquot 

 alse tectricibus albis" is explained by the fact that this type, loaned 

 me by Mr. Bangs, is albinistic, the forehead, loral region, three 

 greater coverts in one wing and two in the other, being white. The 

 culmen is less elevated basally and less laterally compressed than 

 in a specimen from El Piiion, but this is doubtless an indication 

 of immaturity. 



Specimens examined. — Ecuador; Mt. Pihchincha, 1; Colombia; 

 "Bogota," (type of M erulaxis senilis Lafr.) 1; El Pihon, 1; Lagun- 

 eta, 2. 



Scytalopus niger (Swains.). 



Platyurus niger Swains. Anim. in Menag. 1838, p. 323 (Chile). 



Scytalopus magellanicus Auct. (Peru, Ecuador and Colombia records 

 only). 



Range. — Western South America from Chile, north, chiefly through the 

 Temperate Zone, to Colombia. 



Remarks. — In Colombia this is the most common species of the 

 genus. It is found in all three ranges of the Andes where it is re- 

 stricted in the main, to the Temperate Zone. Local conditions 

 bring it down occasionally to the zone below. There is some vari- 

 ation in size and intensity of color in our series but it appears to be 

 individual, and on the whole our specimens agree with one from 

 Valparaiso, Chile. The juvenal plumage is more or less washed 

 with rusty, paler below, and is never as distinctly barred as in <S. 

 cinereicollis and S. micropterus, the bars when present being com- 

 paratively obsolete. There is no indication of bars in the tail or of 

 white in the crown. 



This widely distributed species has been generally confused with 

 Scytalopus maaellanicus (Gmel.) which, as shown by thirteen speci- 

 mens recently secured by Beck in the Cape Horn region for the 

 Brewster-Sanford collection, is a wholly different species, 1 which 

 h as the forehead gray, the rest of the upperparts washed with cin- 



1 Cf. Menegaux and Hellmayr (Bull. Mus. d'Hist. Nat. 1905, p. 379) who have 

 already reached a similar conclusion. 



