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

BIEDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 221
and measurements with sufficient accuracy, and is identified as
the bird that Grant described. From my comparisons it appears
that nigroviridis is a fairly well marked subspecies of melanolaimus
that may be distinguished from specimens from Mendoza, taken as
representative of typical inelanolalnms^ and from perplexus^ by
the restriction of the black marking behind the malar stripe, the
smaller size of the spots on the undersurface, and slightly more
greenish cast below. In measurements this form seems somewhat
intermediate between true tnelanolaimus and perplexus. Measurements
of two male birds from Las Palmas (including the one prepared
as a skeleton) are as follows: Wing, 155-157.5 mm.; culmen,
31.6-34 mm. The type of nigroviridis collected by Prof. J. G.
Kerr was taken in the month of April (1890), so that we may
presume that it was in winter plumage, which would account for the
golden wash on ear coverts and rump mentioned by Grant. On
the basis of my present studies (on very insufficient material) it
would seem that nigroviridis is the form of melanolaimus found
in the Chaco. In restriction of the black behind the malar stripe
and in the greenish tinge of the undersurface, the Las Palmas
specimen, while undoubtedly closely related to melanolaimus^ sug-
gests Chrysoptilus melanochlorus^ and it may be that further collecting
will produce intermediate specimens that will link the forms
of the two groups as geographic variants of one wide-ranging
species.
These woodpeckers, handsomely marked and of good appearance,
were common in the Chaco near the Eio Paraguay, but did not
seem to penetrate far inland. In general habits they resemble
flickers, but are more partial to wooded sections than the South
American species of that group, and to not range far into open
country unless trees are near at hand. They fed on the ground in
little openings, and in settled districts were observed on plowed
ground between rows of trees in orange groves. Burns in open
savannas were attractive to them. They are gregarious to the ex-
tent that five or six may be found together, though it is not unusual
to see single birds at rest quietly in the open top of a tree, or to
have one fly up to hitch along the larger limbs of a tree under shelter
of leaves. The flight is bounding like that of any flicker and
in general appearance the species suggests the pampas flicker; in
fact, I killed my first specimen on a dull, gloomy, rainy day under
the impression that it was an ordinary flicker. The ordinary call
note is a loud scolding keah keah keah kah.
From July 16 to 31, 1920, the species was fairly common at the
borders of open savannas near the small stream known as the
Riacho Quia (Guarani for "dirty creek"), at Las Palmas, Chaco.
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