HOMORUS LOPIIOTES. 195 



Argentine country, and extends as far south as the southern boundary 

 of the Buenos Ayrean province. 



It is resident, living in pairs in places where there are scattered 

 thorny trees and bushes, and is never found in deep woods. It never 

 attempts to conceal itself, but, on the contrary, sits exposed on a bush 

 and will allow a person to approach within three or four yards of it. 

 Nor has it the restless manner of most Synallaxine birds which live 

 in the same places with it, but moves in a slow deliberate way, and 

 spends a great deal of time sitting motionless on its perch, occasionally 

 uttering its call or song, composed of a series of long, shrill, powerful 

 notes in descending scale and uttered in a very leisurely manner. It 

 builds a large oblong nest of sticks, about two feet deep, and placed 

 obliquely among the thorny twigs of a bush or low tree. Mr. Barrows 

 writes : " There are commonly two cavities in the nest, one being half 

 open to the weather, and forming the entrance, the other further 

 back and connected with the former by only a short passage-way, which 

 in many cases is reduced to a simple hole through a broad partition, 

 which alone separates them/' The eggs are four and of a pure white. 



The name commonly used for this species is founded on the "Anumbe 

 roxo" of Azara's ' Apuntamientos'; but the description given there of 

 the bird's nesting-habits shows either that some other species was meant 

 perhaps P. sibilatrix, Doring or that the nesting-habits of a different 

 bird have been assigned to P. ruber. 



212. HOMORUS LOPHOTES, Reichenb. 

 (BROWN CACHALOTE.) 

 ' [PLATE IX.] 



Homorus lophotes, Reichb. Handb. p. 172 ; Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl. 

 vol. viii. p. 212 (Entrerios) ; Hudson, Ibis, 1885, p. 283 (Buenos Ayres). Ana- 

 bates unirufus, Eurm. La-Plata JReise, ii. p. 466 (Cordova). Homorus 

 unirufus, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl p. 65 ; White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 612 (Cata- 

 marca). 



Description. Above brown, tinged with olive on the back, but clear and 

 rufescent on the hind head and rump ; crest-feathers blackish brown ; wings 

 blackish ; tail chestnut ; beneath earthy brown, throat rufous ; under wing- 

 and tail-coverts and inner margins of wing-feathers pale rufous; bill pale 

 bluish, feet bluish horn-colour : whole length 9-8 inches, wing 4-6, tail 4-2. 

 Female similar. 



Hab. Argentina. 



This species interested me greatly during my observations of the 



