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

290 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
a dense mat of tangled branches 3 meters above the stream, attracted
by a squeak, and bobbed about in a wrenlike manner. The bill, in
life, was black; base of mandible light neutral gra}^; tarsus fuscous
black ; toes smoke gray ; iris carob brown.
The bird measures as follows: Wing, 52; tail, 44; exposed culmen,
12.5; tarsus, 18.5 mm.
RHINOCRYPTA LANCEOLATA (Is. Geoffroy and d'Orbigny)
RMnomvQ, lanceolata, Isidore Geoffeoy and cI'Orbigny, Mag. Zool., 1832,
cl. 2, pi. 3. (Cai-meu and Salina d'Andres Paz, Rio Negro.*"*)
In the valley of the Rio Negro, below General E,oca, Rio Negro,
the present species was common from November 23 to December 3,
1920; a female was taken November 23 and males on November 23,
27, and December 3. The birds were encountered usually in rather
heavy growths of open brush that clothed the arid flood plain of
the stream, and few seemed to range inland through the still drier,
gravelly hills that formed the northern border of the valley.
Though common, E. lanceolata was shy, and was seen or secured
only at the expense of considerable effort. The birds normally ran
about on the ground with crest erect and tail cocked at an angle
above the back. As I traversed their haunts I was greeted by a low
vrut prut prut^ or a musical tulloch, from the brush on either hand,
and occasionally had a glimpse of one of the elusive birds as it
darted across some little opening. Occasionally, when safe behind
a protective screen of low weeds or a drooping branch, one stopped
to peer back at me, or less frequently with a running jump one
sprang into the branches of a bush and clambered up for a
better outlook. It is doubtful if Rh'mocrypta has occasion to fly a
hundred meters in the course of a month, a circumstance that has
given rise to the appropriate local name of corre corre que no vuela.
The slight breast muscles were pale in color, indicating a poor blood
supply, and loose and flabby in substance in contract to the strong,
heavy leg muscles. The heavy operculum that overhung either nos-
tril was movable, and was so developed that it may serve as a protective
device that aids breathing during the constant heavy wind-
storms of these regions, during which the loose earth forms a dense
dust cloud in the air. On December 3 I found a nest placed more
than a meter from the ground amid heavy branches in a dense,
thorny bush. The somewhat bulky structure was an untidy affair
made of weed stems, bits of bark, and grasses, lined with finer
material. The top was covered in an arch, and the entrance was a
large irregular opening in one side. The nest contained two white
eggs and two of the spotted eggs of the glossy cowbird {Molothrus
83 d'Orbigny, Voy. Am^r. M6rid., Ois., vol. 4, pt. 3, 1835-44, p. 195.