182 DENBROCOLAPTIDJ3. 



p. Gil (Buenos Ayres); Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl. viii. p. 207 (En- 

 trerios). 



Description. Above, front brown, crown chestnut, superciliaries white ; 

 sides of head, neck, back, and tail pale fulvous brown, with broad blackish 

 striatioDs on the neck and back ; upper wing-coverts pale chestnut ; wing- 

 feathers blackish, the outer webs edged with pale fulvous brown ; beneath, upper 

 half of throat sulphur-yellow, lower half black, with a white patch on each side 

 of the black ; breast and belly whitish, washed with earthy brown, slightly 

 fulvous on the breast and flanks ; under wing-coverts fulvous white ; bill and 

 feet horn-colour : whole length 8*5 inches, wing 2-4, tail 4'6. 



Hab. Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay. 



This pretty Spine- tail is nowhere common in the Argentine country, 

 and in Buenos Ayres it is exceedingly scarce. It is rather large for a 

 Synallaxis, the total length being nine inches. The two middle 

 feathers of the acuminated tail greatly exceed the others in length, 

 measuring five inches. The plumage is very pale brown, marked with 

 fuscous ; the crown and wing-coverts rufous. The beauty of the bird 

 is in the throat, which has three strongly contrasted colours, distin- 

 guishing it from all other Synallaxes. In the angle of the beak the 

 colour is sulphur-yellow, under this is a patch of velvet-black, and on 

 each side of the yellow and black a pure white patch. 



Mr. Barrows has the following very interesting note on its nesting- 

 habits : " A nest containing four white eggs, faintly tinted with blue, 

 was found in a thorny tree, and some eight feet from the ground. The 

 nest was quite similar to the one just described (of S. albescens), but 

 the cavity in which the eggs were laid was near the top of the body of 

 the nest, while the passage-way descended from it to the base of the 

 nest, and there becoming external rose gradually to the level of the 

 eggs at a distance of almost three feet/'' 



197. SYNALLAXIS STEIATICEPS (Lafr. et d'Orb.). 

 (STRIPED SPINE-TAIL.) 



Synallaxis striaticeps, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 469 (Parana) ; Hudson, 

 P. Z. 8. 1872, p. 544 (Rio Negro) ; 8d. et Sale. Nomencl. p. 64 ; Scl. P. Z. S. 

 1874, p. 21 ; Salvin, Ibis, 1880, p. 358 (Salta) ; White, P. Z. S. 1883 ; p. 39 

 (Cordova) ; Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl. viii. p. 208 (Entrerios). 



Description. Above earthy brown, darker on the crown, which has slight 

 greyish striations ; broad superciliaries white ; upper wing-coverts pale chest- 

 nut ; wing-feathers blackish, glossed with olive; tail pale chestnut; beneath 

 white; under wing-coverts pale fulvous; bill and feet horn-colour: whole 

 length 5-9 inches, wing 2-4, tail 2-4. Female similar. 



