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

BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 275
less alarmed, and in the dense scrub were easily overlooked. It
was not unusual to see them feeding on open ground among thorny
bushes where, like an ovenbird, they walked about with long strides.
When startled they rise at once into the limbs of the trees where
they clamber quickly away until they are concealed behind twigs or
leaves. Frequently they work rapidly along, flying from tree to
tree, until they are lost to view. In fact, when thoroughly alarmed
it is difficult to keep near them, so artful are they in seeking a
screen behind which they may move rapidly away without being
observed. Though not breeding at this season, they spent considerable
time about nests, constructed of sticks, placed at low
elevations in the trees. The little bands frequently rested in close
proximity to these structures, or when not too much alarmed hopped
or climbed rapidly to shelter behind them, where they rested in a
crouching attitude with crest erect and head turning quickly from
side to side. Their need for protection from sight was obvio.us
since the light, streaked color pattern and the erect crest made them
very conspicuous. When alarmed they gave a sputtering metallic
rattle that was very peculiar.
The stick nests that they frequented were 300 mm. in diameter,
globular in form, with an entrance through a small tunnel that
led into one side. The nests were strongly made with thorny,
crooked twigs so interwoven that it was difficult to open them for
examination. The twigs used were often 300 mm. or over long and
as large around as a pencil. The birds delighted in resting in the
entrance tunnel or in clambering about over the top. On April 12
I observed three busy with the arrangement of a few small twigs
about the entrance to one of these domiciles, a labor that was accompanied
by odd chattering and trilling notes. These changed
to the sputtering alarm note as soon as I was "sighted and the whole
part}^ moved rapidly away.
In the collections of the United States National Museum there
is a specimen secured in February, 1860, on the Rio Bermejo.
ANUMBIUS ANNUMBI (Vieillot)
Furnarius annumM Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. 12, 1817, p.
117. (Paraguay.)
The present species, the one usually indicated by the name
leiiatero^ though that designation is applied to all of the tracheo-
phones that build stick nests, was recorded and skins were col-
lected as follows: Kilometer 182, Formosa, August 21, 1920; For-
mosa, Formosa, August 23 (adult male) and 24 (adult female) ;
Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay, September 3 (adult male) ; Kilometer
80, west of Puerto Pinasco, September 6 to 18 (adult male, Sep-