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

BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 225
Colaptes J). ]?itin.s was encountered near Concon, Chile, in small
numbers. Three of these birds frequented a small valley with slopes
grown with low bushes studded with occasional trees along a water-
course, where they fed on the ground among the bushes in small
openings grown with grass. In spite of this cover they were so wary
that it was difficult to approach them, as at the slightest alarm they
rose and traveled away with stronglj-- bounding flight that displayed
alternately the white rump and the yellow undersurface of the wings.
Their call was a high-pitched double note, flickerlike in nature, but
of different character than the species encountered in Argentina.
Like other flickers, I found that they decoyed readily to a " squeak "
when they had no cause to suspect danger, a trait that brought two
within range and added them to my collection.
A specimen secured on April 28, 1921 (probably a male), had the
bill dark neutral gray, iris chalcedony yellow, and tarsus and toes
deep olive gray.
Family TROGONIDAE
TROGONURUS VARIEGATUS BEHNI (Gould)
Troffon hehni Gould, Mon. Trog., etl. 2, 187.5, pi. 20, with text. (Bolivia.)
Two skins preserved from the vicinity of Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay,
exhibit the characters assigned to the subspecies hehnL A
male differs from specimens from eastern Brazil in larger size, restriction
of white on the tips of the lateral rectrices, and more
greenish cast to head and breast. The female is larger in size. The
white breastband appears wider in both sexes than in the typical
form. The male from Puerto Pinasco measures: Wing, 128; tail,
124; exposed culmen, 16.5; tarsus, 14 mm.; the female, wing. 120;
tail, 120; exposed culmen, 15.4; tarsus, 13.6 mm.
On September 1, 1920, a female was secured in heav_y timber on
a low^ hill at Kilometer 25, west of Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay. The
bird flew from some unseen perch to alight as easily as a jay on an
open limb, 3 meters from the ground. When it observed me the crest
feathers were slowly raised. On September 21 tAvo were taken in
the border of somewhat open forest, near Kilometer 80. The call
note of this species is a fairly loud regular coo coo coo varied to
coh coh coh coh coh. The flight is direct and darting, and on the
wing the birds suggest cuckoos in manner and actions. The body
in this species exhales the same strong odor found in cuckoos, par-
ticularly in the Crotophaginae.
An adult male, when fresh, had the bill court gray; lower man-
dible washed with light celandine green; margin of eyelids yellow
ocher; iris carob brown; toes storm gray, with the scales outlined
in whitish. In an adult female the bill was light celandine green;