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

BIEDS OF AEGENTTNA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 253
December 7, 1920. Others were noted December 8 and 9. If the
genus Eremohius^ of Gould (1839) be considered preoccupied by
Eremohia Stephens,^^ applied to a group of insects, then the bird
under discussion here must bear the name Enicomis Gray.^''
Heiiicornis wallisi Scott ^^ in all probability is a synonym of ipliocn-
icurus since the type locality, Arroyo Eke, is in central Santa Cruz,
not far distant from the coast. Salvador! ^^ states that, according to
Hellmayr, Scott's form is of doubtful validity, as three specimens in
the Tring Museum differ from phoenicurus only in having the mid-
dle rectrices " wholly brown or with but a small ferruginous patch at
the base of the inner web." The types of E. phoenicurus in the
British Museum are said to have the whole basal portion of the
middle rectrices, on both webs, ferruginous. The skin from Zapala
has the bases of the central tail feathers mottled faintly with fer-
ruginous. Until more material is available this faint distinction is
considered merely individual variation.
The type of Enicomis striata Allen (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.,
vol. 2, Mar. 22, 1889, p. 89), which I have seen in the American
Museum of Natural History, described from a specimen brought
back by Doctor Rusby, of unknown locality, ascribed questionably to
Valparaiso, on examination proves to be Upucerthia ruficauda.
Near Zapala these birds were found amid patches of low thorny
brush that grew on the slopes of rolling hills, where the soil was
composed of sand and stones. Here they worked secretively under
cover or ran along on the ground with the tail cocked at an angle
over the back. Occasionally one flew with tilting flight to a secure
retreat passing only a meter above the ground. In general ap-
pearance they suggested long-tailed wrens but were more terrestrial.
Their call was a low clicking note. (PL 17.)
LOCHMIAS NEMATURA NEMATURA (Lichtenstein)
Myiothera ncmatura Lichtenstein, Yerz. Doubl. Zool. Mus., 1823, p. 43.
(Sao Paulo, Brazil.)
Near San Vicente, Uruguay, on January 29, 1921, as I came down
to a small stream in a rocky, heavily wooded gulch a small bird came
out curiously to meet me, and then retreated to the somber shadows
behind. With its sooty brown coloration it was difficult to dis-
tinguish in the cover, now dank and dripping from heavy rains,
that it frequented, so that several times it had moved along while I
was still trying to make out its dull-colored form on the perch
recently occupied. Wrenlike in form and wrenlike in actions it
« 111. Brit. Ent., Haust., vol. 3, 1829, p. 94.
^List Gen. Birds, 1840, p. 17.
==^Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 10, Apr. 30, 1900, p. 63.
^Ibis, 1908, p. 453.
54207—26 17