1917.] Chapman, Distribution of Bird-life in Colombia. 359 



Order FASSERIFORMES. 

 Family HYLACTID^. Tapacolas. 



(1812) Scytalopus niger (Swains.). 

 Platyurus niger Swains., Anim. in Menag., 1838, p. 323 (Chile). 



This, the most common species of the genus, is found in all three ranges 

 of the Andes where it is restricted in the main, to the Temperate Zone. 

 Local conditions bring it down occasionally to the zone below. There is 

 some variation in size and intensity of color in our series but it appears to 

 be individual, and on the whole our specimens agree with one from Val- 

 paraiso, Chile. The juvenal plumage is more or less washed with rusty, 

 paler below, and is never as distinctly barred as in S. cinereicollis and S. 

 microptenis, the bars, when present, being comparatively obsolete. There 

 is no indication of bars in the tail or of white in the crown. 



This widely distributed species has been generally confused with Scyta- 

 lopus magellanicus (Gmel.) which, as shown by thirteen specimens recently 

 secured by Beck in the Cape Horn region for the Brewster-Sanford collec- 

 tion, is a wholly different species.' 



Andes w. of Popayan, 8; Cerro Munchique, 9; Cocal, 3; Almaguer, 4; 

 Valle de las Pappas, 3; Laguneta, 3; Santa Isabel, 2; Sta. Elena, 1; Fusu- 

 gasuga, 1; El Roble, 2; El Pinon, 2. 



(1812a) Scytalopus canus Ckapm. 



Scytalopus canus Chapm., Auk, XXXII, 1915, p. 412 (Paramillo, 12,500 ft., 

 Western Andes, Col.). • 



Char. sp. — With a general resemblance to S. niger (Swains.) ^ but adult grayer 

 throughout, the underparts paler than the upperparts, the center of the abdomen 

 grayer than surrounding parts; tail shorter, the feathers narrower and softer, their 

 barbs, apically, more or less separated; bill shorter, feet and tarsi more slender; 

 apparently closely resembling, and perhaps representing, S. unicolor Salv. of Peru, 

 but much smaller, the female of the same color as the male. 



The juvenal plumage is evidently conspicuously barred above and below with 

 cinnamon-buff and therefore resembles that of iS. griseicollis rather than that of <S. 

 niger. 



1 Cf. Menegaux and Hellmayr (Bull. Mus. d'Hist. Nat., 1905, p. 379) who have already reached a 

 similar conclusion, and also Chapman, Auk, XXXII, 1915, p. 411. 



2 iS. magellanicus auct. plur., nee. Gmel., excl. more southern references. 



