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

BIEDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 415
as the sandy soil in which it was placed w^as soft and yielding-, so
that little padding was required to protect the eggs from injury.
In fact, the nest material was formed into a mere rim that main-
tained the form of the depression and prevented sand from sifting
down on the eggs. This nest contained three eggs with slight in-
cubation. The color of these is white tinged faintly with bluish
green, with diffuse markings of vinaceous russet heavier toward the
larger end, where there is an occasional dot of black, but distributed
in fine irregular dots over the entire surface. The three measure
21.5 by 16.1, 21.8 by 16, and 21.6 by 15.5 mm. Another nest dis-
covered November 1, on the ground in a growth of weeds in a
garden, was a strong, firmly built structure of grasses with a few
horsehairs in the lining. It contained three eggs with incubation
begun, similar in color to the set described above, but with less
diffusion of the brown markings so that the spotting appears bolder
and heavier. These eggs measure 22 by 15.8, 20.4 by 15.6, and 19.7
by 15.4 mm. The larger volume of the eggs in these two sets of B. c,
argentina, when compared with the single sets of B. c. choraules
and B. c. canicapilJa secured, is noticeable, though the series examined
is too small to permit much generalization.
During the first week in November, 1920, when I pitched temporary
camp in an unoccupied hut far from other habitation in
the sand dunes below Cape San Antonio, eastern Buenos Aires,
a pair of chingolos came to the threshold as soon as my outfit had
been placed under cover. And during a three days' gale of violent
wind and rain that followed these sparrows, with the toldero {Emhemagra
platensis)^ came invariably at meal time to secure bits of
hard bread that I tossed out to them, the only birds undismayed
by the force of the elements.
On the whole, B. c. argentina would seem to be more or less
sedentary as its range does not include areas of rigorous climate.
In its typical form it is essentially a subspecies of the pampas
region, where it occurs universally from the drier interior, to the
salt marshes of the coast.
BRACHYSPIZA CAPENSIS HYPOLEUCA Todd
Brachyspiza capensis hypoleuca Todd, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol.
28, Apr. 13, 1915, p. 79. (Rio Bermejo, between Oran and Embarcacion,
Province of Salta, Argentina, altitude 400 meters.")
The present subspecies, recorded previously in literature only
from the type locality, was secured at Tapia, Tucuman, a consider-
1" In the original description the type was said to have come from the " Rio Bermejo,
Argentina." Mr. Todd informs me that tlie bird was secured by Steinbach, probably
between Oran and Embarcacion ; the type specimen i.« marked " Rio Bermejo, I'rov.
Salta, Argentina, 400 m."