Bulletin - United States National Museum - si-pddr - Smithsonian ...

BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 141
of the present species save that the crown is described as nearly
white and the legs as red. The crown in the immature large-billed
tern is pale gray, while the feet are yellow. The size, color of the
wing coverts, large bill, and forking of the tail are those of Phaetxisa,
and the head, while not true white, is lighter than the back and
might be characterized as " nearly white." It is my opinion that the
present species may be recognized from this description, which can
not refer to any other tern of this region. Gmelin in translating
Latham's English into Latin wrote "vertice * * * alba," but
this has no consequence, as Gmelin had no specimens but simply
took what Latham had said regarding the bird. The " variety a "
of Latham's simple tern which follows refers to some other species.
The name of the large-billed tern, therefore, becomes Phaetufsa
svrnplex Gmelin with the type locality Cayenne. The southern form
will stand as Phaetusa s. chloropoda Vieillot. Sterna hrevirostris
Vieillot^" based on the hati fico corto of Azara, a name that has
been assigned doubtfully to the present bird, is based on the imma-
ture of some other species. Otherwise it would have priority over
chloropoda.
Specimens of the northern form have been seen (in the collections
of the United States National Museum, the Field Museum of Natural
History, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Museum of Com.parative
Zoology) from Colombia (Barranquilla), Venezuela (Punta
Caiman, Manimo River, Eio Uracoa, Aruba Island, Lake Valencia),
British Guiana (Georgetown), Dutch Guiana (Braamspunt, Tyger-
bank, Diana Creek), and Brazil (Serra Grande and Conceicao,
Amazonas, Santarem and Pernambuco). The southern form is repsented
in the Museum of Comparative Zoologj^ bj^ skins from Con-
cepcion del Uruguay .
(collected by Barrows) in addition to the
localities that have been noted. It seems probable that P. s. chloropoda
is found in the Paraguay-Parana drainage and that P. s. simplex
covers the river basins of northern South America.
Family JACANIDAE
JACANA JACANA (Linnaeus)
Parra jacana Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, vol. 1, 1766, p. 259. (Surinam.")
The jacana, common in the Chaco and in parts of Uruguay, was
recorded at the following points : Resistencia, Chaco, July 9 and 10,
1920; Las Palma.5, Chaco, July 17 to 31; Riacho Pilaga, Formosa,
August 9 to 17; Formosa, Formosa, August 23; Puerto Pinasco,
Paraguay, September 1 to 30 (found from the Rio Paraguay, west
^Nouv. Diet Hist. Nat, vol. 32, 1819, p. 16C.
^ See Berlepsch and Hartert, Nov. Zoo!., vol. 0, .Vpril, 1002, p. 121).