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

170 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
acters : Larger size, gray head and neck, more extensive black markings
on head and neck, and further posterior extension of black on
breast. (Wing 240 to 258 mm.)
2. BELONOPTERUS CHILENSIS CAYANNENSIS (Gmelin).
Range : Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas (type locality Cayenne),
and northern Brazil (south at least to Diamantina, near Santarem).
Characters : BroAvnish head and sides of neck, forming an unbroken
collar on foreneck, and greater length of tarsus (77.5 to 82.5 mm.).
3, BELONOPTERUS CHILENSIS LAMPRONOTUS (Wagler).
Range: Southern and eastern Brazil,*^ Paraguay, Uruguay, and
Argentina west to the plains at the eastern base of the Andes south
into northern Patagonia. Characters: Brownish gray head and
sides of neck, with a black line passing from black of throat to
breast, and shorter tarsus (69.5 to 75.5 mm.).
The third form has been recognized as Belonopterus grisesceris
Prazak by Brabourne and Chubb.*^ As Vanellus grisescens Prazak**
was described from a single specimen secured by Richard
Materna in " North Chile," it can not refer to the bird of the eastern
pampas and must be considered a synonjan of chilensis. As a
matter of fact, the name lampronotus of Wagler cited above is
available for the southern form, and does not refer to the northern
typical subspecies, as in his description Wagler states that lampro-
notus has a black line leading down the middle of the foreneck to
the breast, sides of the head, hind neck, and sides of neck ashy and
tarsus 3 inches long, characters that indicate a bird from the south.
He cites the range as Paraguay, Brazil, and Cayenne. The type
locality is hereby restricted to Paraguay.
The large, conspicuously colored teru teru is one of the most
prominent birds found on the Argentine pampas, a species that the
traveler meets almost at once on reaching open country. Where
the birds are common one is never free from their insistent espionage,
and though the birds are pleasing in color, their clamor soon becomes
tiresome even when they do not alarm desirable game. Where
herdsmen pass continually through the fields on horseback the
plovers are tame; elsewhere, where hunting is prevalent, they may
be more shy, but it is seldom difficult to call them within gun range
by sitting down in the open or by waving a white handkerchief.
During the breeding season the birds fly out to meet all comers and
with clamorous calls conduct intruders across their chosen domain.
On moonlit nights their barking stiltlike calls may be heard continuously,
while they call at any time when disturbed, even though
*2 A skin in the Field Museum, from Cidade da Barra, Rio San Francisco, Bahia,
is representative of tliis form.
*3 Birds of South America, December, 1912, p. 38.
" Ornith. Monatsber., vol. 4, 1896, p. 23.
''