ELEVEN WEEKS IN NORTH-EASTERN BRAZIL. 267 



62. PACHTEHAMPHUS ATRICAPILLUS. 



I obtained a single female specimen of this bird from a small boy at 

 Macuca, who had shot it with an earthen pellet discharged from a bow 

 a style of shooting much indulged in by the youthful Brazilians, who Ibis, 1881, 

 become very good marksmen in this rather primitive method. P* 346 ' 



Irides brown. 



63. CONOPOPHAGA LTffEATA. 



I only once met with this bird, and that was one day when out 

 shooting with Mr. Weaver in a patch of forest on the top of the hills 

 near Quipapa. "We were going along a narrow path in the forest, 

 which was so thick as to prevent our seeing more than about a yard in 

 any direction. We could bear a number of birds with a very loud 

 chattering cry around us, and occasionally could get a glimpse of one 

 as it hopped about in the dense undergrowth. A lucky shot on my 

 friend's part secured a specimen ; but further efforts were fruitless. 

 The silvery-white tufts of feathers on the sides of the head are very 

 striking on the freshly shot bird. 



Irides brown. 



I may here remark that the genus ConopopTiaga has been wrongly 

 placed by Messrs. Sclater and Salvin in their valuable ' Nomenclator/ 

 By them it is included as a member of the " OligomyodaB," the Gonopo- 

 phaginse being placed as the first subfamily of the Tyrannidae. We 

 know, however, from the researches of Miiller (Stimmorgane d. Passeri- 

 nen, p. 39, and, ibid., Garrod's edition, p. 32), that Conopophaga aurita 

 possesses a typically Tracheophone syrinx, so that it is amongst those 

 forms that the genus must be correctly located (cf. Garrod, P. Z. S. 1877, 

 p. 452, also a paper by the writer, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 435). 



64. FuBNABIUS FIGTJLUS. 



The Oven-bird does not appear to be found in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of Recife, but I found it at nearly all the other places I stayed 

 at, from Parahyba to Garanhuns. At Cabo, where I first saw it, it 

 was abundant close to Mr. Hood's house, both in the garden and on the 

 line of railway adjoining. It is a very noisy bird, and, in the mornings 

 particularly, may often be seen, sometimes two or three together, perched 

 on the roofs of houses or on the telegraph-wires, pouring forth a loud 

 song of peculiar chattering notes. It also spends a good deal of its time ibis, 1881, 

 on the ground, and when there walks in a peculiar way, \\ ith an action P- '<&** 

 that somewhat reminds one of a high-stepping horse. Unfortunately 

 I never saw a nest of the Furnaritts, nor did I hear from the Brazilians 

 any stories of it similar to those narrated by Burmeister. 



