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

BIEDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 368
ANTHUS CORRENDERA CHILENSIS (Lesson)
Corydalla chilensis Lesson, Rev. Zool., vol. 2, 1839, p. 101. (Chile.)
Near Concon, Chile, on April 24 and 25, 1921, several of these
pipits were seen. A male taken on the first date mentioned shows the
pronounced yellow w^ash above and below that distinguishes this form
from typical correndera. An immature male, shot near Guamini, in
southwestern Buenos Aires, on March 7, 1921, is identical in colora-
tion with the Chilian form, and must be designated as that race
under our present understanding of the forms involved. Specimens
of chilensis in the United States National Museum include birds
from near Santiago, and a small series from Gregory Bay and
Elizabeth Island, in the Straits of Magellan. Skins from Lago San
Martin, Santa Cruz (Museum of Vertebrate Zoology collection),
while not typical, are nearer chilensis than correndera. It is assumed
that the specimen from Guamini is a migrant from the south
or southwest. Patagonian skins seem more or less intermediate and
specimens from Rio Negro are not wdiolly typical of correndera.
The Guamini skin may possibly represent an extreme variant toward
chilensis from some region in Patagonia wdiere the two forms inter-
grade.
ANTHUS LUTESCENS LUTESCENS Pucheran
Anthus Ititescetis Puchkban, Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, vol. 7, 1855,
p. 343. (Rio de .Janeiro, Brazil.)
Eleven skins of this small pipit come from the following localities
Las Palmas, Chaco, July 15 and 22, 1920, one male, two females;
Riacho Pilaga, Formosa, August 9, female; Puerto Pinasco, Para-
guay, September 3, two females ; Kilometer 80, west of Puerto Pinasco,
September 8, 9, and 21, three males, two females. Though single
birds were seen occasionally, it was usual to encounter this species in
flocks that contained as many as 50 individuals. The birds fre-
quented wet meadows or the borders of lagoons where low, scattered
clumps of bunch grass furnished a certain amount of shelter, or less
often were found on open spaces at the borders of ponds, or even on
mats of vegetation floating on shallow water. When first alarmed
they crouched motionless in little depressions or under slight cover,
where they entirely escaped the eye, or if too closely pressed took to
wing with a curious, hesitant flight, in which the body was held at a
vertical angle of 45° and the bird progressed in a series of jerking
undulations. Though at times flocks rose to wheel about in the air,
they usually dropped back to the ground in a short space to remain
quiet until danger seemed past. When feeding in cover they walked
slowly about in a crouching position, creeping under wisps of grass
and seeking any slight protection that offered. At such times they
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