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

322 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
for passing insects. In appearance and actions they resembled the
usual type of small flycatchers.
SPIZITORNIS FLAVIROSTRIS FLAVIROSTRIS (Sclater and Salvin)
Anaeretes flavirostris Sclater and Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1876,
p. 355. (Tilotilo, Yungas, Bolivia.)
Five adult males secured near General Roca, Rio Negro, on November
25 and 29, and December 2, 1920 (one prepared as a skele-
ton), mark a considerable extension in range for this species, since it
has been recorded by Dabbene " only south to the Sierra de Cordoba.
It is possible that it has been overlooked through its similarity to
Spizitomis parulus. S. f. flavirostris was found with S. jp. patagoni-
eus, but was readily distinguished by the yellowish base of the
mandible, by the heavier black streaks on the underparts, and,
when in the flesh, by its dark eye. It was fairly common in the
low bushes that dotted the sides of little valleys in the arid gravel
hills north of the flood plain of the Rio Negro. In general appearance,
aside from its crest, it suggested a gnatcatcher, as it hopped
about in the tops of the low bushes or occasionally darted up to
secure some insect in the air. The resemblance was heightened w4ien
it threw the tail at a jaunty angle over the back, though the slender,
recurved crest of a few black feathers broke the illusion at first
glance. The birds were active and alert and often difficult to
approach since they flew with tilting flight from bush to bush at
the slighest suggestion of danger.
Males were practically in breeding condition and were singing
constantly, a low buzzing, squeaky effort, barely audible above the
wind, that I wrote as seet zwee-ee seeta seeta seeta.
The inside of the mouth and base of the mandible were zinc
orange; rest of bill black; iris Hay's brown; tarsus black.
Chapman * has named two subspecies of flavirostns from Peru-
SPIZITORNIS PARULUS PARULUS (Kittlitz)
Muscicapa Parulufi Kittlitz, Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.-Petersbourg, vol. 1,
1831, p. 190. (Concepcion and Valparaiso, Chile.)
On the grounds that Anairetes of Reichenbach, 1850,'^ is preoccupied
by Anaeretes Dejean, 1837,*^ Oberholser ^ has proposed the
generic name Spizitornis for this bird.
3 Orn. Argentina, An. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires, vol. 18, 1910, p. 331.
«Amer. Mus. Nov., no. 118, June 20, 1924, p. 8.
. ^ Ajiairetes Reichenbacli, Av. Syst. Nat., 1850, pi. 66.