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

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360 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM<br />

This handsome gnatcatcher was found in thorny trees at the<br />

border of forest, in semiopen scrub, and lowland thickets or, at the<br />

Estancia Los Yngleses, near Lavalle, Buenos Aires, in groves of<br />

tala {Celtis tola). The birds hopped jauntily about among the<br />

branches with drooping wings and elevated tail, in a manner <strong>si</strong>milar<br />

to other Polioptila^ but the songs and call notes, as loud as those<br />

of a small warbler, were surpri<strong>si</strong>ngly strong for a bird of this<br />

group. The ordinary scolding note resembled zhree or pree-ee or<br />

a low chit-it. The usual song, given in a melodious tone, was<br />

whit see wheety wheety wheety or tee tee tee tee wheety wheety<br />

wheety. Occa<strong>si</strong>onally they indulged in a more varied warble. They<br />

were found at times in mixed flocks with other small brush birds.<br />

An adult male taken on October 27, near Lavalle, was in breeding<br />

condition, and an immature female was secured at Lazcano, Febru-<br />

ary 6. The birds were encountered in pairs throughout the year,<br />

and remained attentively near one another at all times. In the<br />

autumn month of April, near Tapia, Tucuman, young males of the<br />

year were in full song and were active and demonstrative toward<br />

the females, so that pairing seemed to be in progress, though the<br />

nesting season was several months in the future. The case is anala-<br />

gous to that of Thr'^yothorus ludovicianus and Sitta caroUnen<strong>si</strong>s,<br />

where young birds pair in their first fall and remain mated through<br />

the winter.<br />

Family MOTACILLIDAE<br />

ANTHUS FURCATUS FURCATUS d'Orbigny and Lafrcsnaye<br />

Anthus furcaius d'ORBioNY and Lafresnaye, Mag. Zool., 1837. cl. 2, p. 27.<br />

(Near Carmen, on the Rio Negro, Patagonia.)^<br />

A series of 16 skins of this pipit afford the following distributional<br />

data: Rio Negro, L^^ruguay, February 21, 1921, immature<br />

male; Baiiado de la India Muerta, 12 miles south of Lazcano, Uruguay,<br />

February 3, three males, two females, adult and immature;<br />

San Vicente, Uruguay, January 31, adult male ; Berazategui, Buenos<br />

Aires, June 29, 1920, female immature; 15 miles south of Cape San<br />

Antonio, Buenos Aires, November 6, adult female; Carhue, Buenos<br />

Aires, December 15 to 17, two adult and one young male, three adult<br />

females; Victorica Pampa, December 26, adult male. In addition<br />

I have examined a male taken September 27, 1919, by E. G. Holt at<br />

Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and two males and two<br />

females shot near Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires, by S. A. Adams,<br />

from October 31 to November 9, 1903. These records in part somewhat<br />

extend the boundaries of the range as<strong>si</strong>gned by Hellmayr.^^<br />

55 See Hellmayr, El Hornero, vol. 2, Aug. 2, 1921, p. 181.<br />

50 El Hornero, vol. 2, Aug. 2, 1921, pp. 181-182.

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