A NEW HERON AND A NEW OWL FROM 

 VENEZUELA 



By HERBERT FRIEDMANN 



Curator, Division of Birds, U. S. National Museum 



Among a collection of birds from northeastern Venezuela is a 

 specimen of an adult male Syrigtna sihilatrix, the whistling heron. 

 At first glance this bird was seen to be strikingly different from a 

 good series from southern Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, especially 

 in the coloration of the upper wing coverts, but also of the crown, 

 neck, breast, and, less obviously, in size. As no name appears to be 

 available for this bird, I take pleasure in naming it for the collector. 



SYRIGMA SIBILATRIX FOSTERSMITHI, new subspecies 



Type. — U.S.N.M. 406385, ad. <^, Caicara, Monagas, Venezuela, 

 July 24, 1948, collected by Foster D. Smith, Jr. (orig. No. 143). 



Siibspecific characters. — Similar to the nominate race but differs in 

 having the upper wing coverts much more yellowish and more nar- 

 rowly striped with black — between chamois and honey yellow, not 

 dull pinkish cinnamon to light ochraceous salmon as in the southern 

 birds ; the neck and breast more yellow, less olivaceous — light honey 

 yellow, not light buffy olive as in typical sibilatrix ; crown somewhat 

 paler — slate color (blackish slate in the nominate race) and with the 

 bill longer, culmen 74.1 mm. as against 66-71 mm. in southern birds. 



Measurements of type. — Wing 280, tail 105, culmen from base 74.1, 

 tarsus 88.2 mm. 



Range. — I have seen only the type, from Caicara, Monagas, but 

 Hellmayr and Conover (Cat. Birds Amer., pt. i. No. 2, p. 207, 1948), 

 state that the species (undoubtedly this race) occurs in the valleys of 

 the Orinoco and Apure Rivers in Venezuela. In a footnote they 

 write that it ". . . remains to be ascertained by the study of an 

 adequate series whether Venezuelan birds are really quite the same 

 [as birds from southern Brazil south to Argentina] . A single adult 

 from the Rio Apure is slightly larger with longer tarsus and bill, 

 while the upper wing coverts are more predominately yellowish and 

 more narrowly streaked with blackish. The divergencies are, however, 

 insignificant." How they could call a striking color difference insignifi- 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. Ill, NO. 9 



