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

BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 411
ern localities, and may be distinguished under the subspecific name of
araguira. Skins from Tapia, Tucuman, and Salta are somewhat
brighter than those from Chaco and Formosa, while specimens from
Sapucay and Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay, are distinctly intermediate
between the typical form and its southern representative, but are
placed best with araguira. The range of C. c. araguira may be given
as from Santa Fe and Corrientes north through Paraguay, west
apparently into Bolivia (one specimen seen marked "La Paz").
At Resistencia, Chaco, this finch was observed commonly from
July 8 to 10, 1920, and a fine male was collected July 8. At Las
Palmas, Chaco, a few were noted from July 16 to August 1, and at
the Riacho Pilaga, Formosa, a few were observed from August 13
to 18, and male and female were taken August 14. The species was
noted near Formosa, Formosa, on August 24, and at Kilometer 80,
west of Puerto Pinasco, it was recorded occasionally from September
7 to 15. On September 30 one was taken from a little flock at the
base of the Cerro Lorito on the eastern bank of the Rio Paraguay
opposite Puerto Pinasco.
These handsome little birds were found in pairs or small bands in
low, heavy brush at the borders of fields or groves. They sometimes
fed like other finches on the ground among clumps of grasses, but
more frequently at an alarm appeared from the depths of thickets
to scold excitedly and perhaps to fly with an undulating flight for
a few yards to new cover. Sometimes they were encountered in
company with Poospiza meJanoleuca. The feathers of the eyelids
are clear white, so that at a little distance the eye appears large and
white.
The Toba Indians in Formosa called this species koi yoh.
A male, taken July 8, had the maxilla dusky black ; tip of mandible
dull slaty black ; base pallid purplish gray ; iris Army brown ; tarsus
and feet dusky brown.
BRACHYSPIZA CAPENSIS CAPENSIS (P. L. S. Miiller)
Fringilla Capensis P. L. S. Muller, Vollst. Naturs., Suppl., 1776, p. 165.
(Cayenne.")
Although the Brachysjnsa from the coast of Uruguay near
Montevideo belongs to the subspecies argentina, an adult male and
three specimens in juvenal plumage secured near Rio Negro in the
Departm nt of Rio Negro, a little more than 240 kilometers north,
seem best placed under B. c. capensis. The adult male, taken February
17, 1921, in rather worn breeding plumage just beginning
the post-nuptial molt, when compared with B. c. argentina., is much
darker, with a narrower median crown stripe, broader, bolder black
markings on the wings and back, and deeper, more rufescent edgings
" See Berlepsch and Hartert, Nov. Zool., vol. 9, April, 1002. p. 28.