298 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



separable therefrom only with difficulty, despite the gap existing be- 

 tween their respective ranges as at present known. 5". scansor (which 

 is certainly specifically distinct from 5". umbretta) is a little larger 

 than the present form, however; its throat is whiter; and the color of 

 its upper parts is a shade less rufescent, especially on the crown. 



No. 44,907, Pueblo Viejo, March 9, is a young bird, resembling the 

 adult, but darker and duller, with the throat dusky grayish. 



Apparently this Sclerurus is a rare bird everywhere. Mr. Brown 

 took but two specimens, while Mr. Smith got thirteen. The writer 

 secured only fourteen in all his collecting. It is found only in the very 

 humid parts of the Subtropical Zone forest, between 5,000 and 7,000 

 feet on the San Lorenzo, and somewhat lower down in the Sierra 

 Nevada, where it was met with only in the damp forest region to the 

 southeast of Pueblo Viejo. It always stays on or very close to the 

 ground, rarely perching on a low shrub or exposed root of a tree. 

 Evidently all its food is secured out of the soft ground and humus, 

 for the bill is invariably found soiled when the bird is shot. 



The nest is placed at the end of a tunnel-shaped excavation, made 

 by the birds themselves, in a more or less perpendicular bank of earth 

 along some small creek or road through the heavy forest. Three such 

 nests were taken along the road between Cincinnati and Las Taguas at 

 5,000 feet elevation. The cavity is about fifteen inches in length, the 

 main portion being about two inches in diameter, while the nest cavity 

 is enlarged to about twice that amount. The two ovoid, white eggs 

 are deposited on a scant bed of dead leaves. All the nests were found 

 in May and June. 



Family FORMICARIID.<E. Ant-birds. 



251. Grallaria rufula spatiator Bangs. 



Grallaria spatiator Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, XII, 1898, 177 

 (Macotama; orig. descr. ; type now in coll. Mus. Comp. Z06I.; meas. ; 

 crit.). — Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIII, 1900, 121, 159, 184 

 (Bangs' reference). — Dubois, Syn. Avium, I, 1900, 170 (Santa Marta [re- 

 gion], in range; ref. orig. descr.). — Shaepe, Hand-List Birds, HI-, 1901, 

 44 (ref. orig. descr.; range). — Brabourne and Chubb, Birds S. Am., I, 

 1912, 218 (ref. orig. descr.; range). 



Three specimens: San Lorenzo and Cerro de Caracas. 

 . The San Lorenzo specimen, shot in July, and in fresh plumage, is 



