232 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXXVI, 



Char, subsp. — Similar to I. e. exilis but slightly smaller; adult male in breeding 

 plumage with the underparts more richly colored; the breast, abdomen, flanks, 

 under wing and under tail-coverts warm buff, the thighs deeper in tone; the median 

 and lesser wing-coverts richer, mainly ochraceous-buff more or less margined with 

 tawny-russet; adult female more nearly resembling adult female of I. e. exilis but the 

 abdominal region, flanks, thighs, under wing and under tail-coverts deeper, warm 

 buff; the back slightly darker; immature male much richer in color than /. e. exilis 

 of same age; underparts heavily washed with ochraceous-buff; central wing-covert 

 area ochraceous-tawny; in adult and immature, tarsi black, toes brownish, their 

 soles yellow. 



Ixobrychus exilis is apparently a rare bird in South America. It is not 

 included in Brabourne and Chubb's 'The Birds of South America' (1912), 

 but is stated in the A. O. U. 'Check-List' (1910), to occur as far south as 

 Brazil. The discovery of a local race of this boreal species on the Bogota 

 Savanna is therefore a fact of rather exceptional interest. An apparently 

 mated pair, both having the sexual organs enlarged, was taken on February 

 17, and an immature male, taken January 21, was purchased by Mr. Fuertes 

 from a local collector. Doubtless the bird is not uncommon in the reedy 

 marshes of the Savanna, but strangely enough it appears not before to have 

 been recorded from the Bogota region. 



Bogota Savanna, 3. 



Order PALAMEDEIFORMES. 

 Family PALAMEDEID^. Sckeamers. 



(490) Palamedea cornuta Linn. 

 Palamedea cornuta Linn., Syst. Nat., I, 1766, p. 232 (Brasil). 



An adult female was taken by Allen on the Cauca marshes near Cali, 

 January 26, 1912. The species does not appear to have been previously 

 recorded from Colombia or from so far west; nevertheless Allen reports 

 it as " not uncommon." 



(491) Ghauna chavaria (Linn.). 



Parra chavaria Linn., Syst. Nat., I, 1766, p. 260 (Carthagena, Col.). 



Commonly observed along the Magdalena River at times in flocks of 

 fifteen or twenty individuals. No specimens were taken. 



