
1870.] MR. P.L. SCLATER ON BIRDS FROM THE PARANA, 57 
I will only add that the cranium of the Dinornis, tom. cit. pl. 38. 
fig. 41, that figured in vol. iv. pl. 24. fig. 4, and a few other muti- 
lated crania not figured show the basal aperture which Dr. Haast 
rightly, I believe, conjectures to have been made for the purpose of 
extracting the brain. 
2. On some new or little-known Birds from the Rio Parana. 
By P. L. Sctarer, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to 
the Society. 
(Plate III.) 
The authorities of the Smithsonian Institution have kindly sub- 
mitted to my examination a small collection of bird-skins from various 
parts of South America, belonging principally to the difficult groups 
of Tyrannide, Dendrocolaptide, and others, which it is almost im- 
possible to determine without the assistance of a large series of 
named specimens. Amongst these are several skins obtained during 
the second American expedition to the Rio Parana, under the com- 
mand of Capt, T. J. Page, U.S.N., in 1859-60. Some of these be- 
long to very interesting species, such as Casiornis rubra (Vieill.), 
Hapalocercus pectoralis (Vieill.)*, Stigmatura budytoides (Latr. et 
d’Orb.)t, Euscarthmus margaritaceiventris (Lafr. et d’Orb.), and 
Empidagra suiriri (Vieill.). Two others, which have particularly 
attracted my attention, are a specimen of the scarce Synallaxine form 
Coryphistera alaudina of Burmeister and a rather obscure Tyrant- 
bird, which I propose to describe as new. 
The single skin of Coryphistera alaudina (Plate III.) is the only 
example that I have ever seen of this bird besides the original spe- 
cimens of Burmeister, which were obtained in the neighbourhood of 
the city of Parana. It is marked “ Vermejo, Feb. 1860,” by which, 
I suppose, is intended the Rio Vermejo—a confluent of the Paraguay 
above its junction with the Parand. It agrees generally with Bur- 
meister’s description (La Plata-Reise, ii. p. 470), and belongs, with- 
out doubt, to a well-marked and rather isolated form, to be located, 
as Burmeister has arranged it, near to Synallazis and Anumbius, but 
presenting some points of analogical resemblance to the Crested Larks. 
Burmeister does not notice the white lores and eye-ring and the 
chestnut ear-coverts, which form a conspicuous feature in this bird ; 
but his description is otherwise generally accurate. 
Of the Tyrant-bird above alluded to, there is likewise only a single 
skin, labelled ‘male: Corumba, Brazil, July 1859”. Its colour 
* Cf. Pelzeln, Orn. Bras. p. 103. 
+ Cf. Sclat. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1866, p. 188. 
{ Corumba is a Brazilian settlement on the Upper Paraguay in the province of 
Matto-Grosso, about 120 miles above Coimbra. See Page’s ‘ La Plata, the Argen- 
tine Confederation, and Paraguay’ (New York, 1859), p. 187. 
