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

BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 421
disappeared at once, slippino- away one at a time until almost before
I was aware of it all had gone.
A male had the bill black; tarsus and toes blackish brown number
7; iris Prussian red.
POOSPIZA NIGRO-RUFA (d'Orbiguy and Lafresnaye)
Emderisa nigro-rufa d'ORRicNY and Lafresnaye, Mag. Zool., 1837, cl. 2,
p. 81. (Santa Fe, Argentina.)
A common species in central and northern Argentina that I found
at Berazategui, Buenos Aires, June 29, 1920 (adult female taken) ;
Las Palmas, Chaco, July 22 and 28 (adult and immature female and
immature male shot) ; Lavalle, Buenos Aires, November 9 (immature
female taken); Carrasco, Uruguay, January 9, 1921; La
Paloma, Uruguay, January 23; San Vicente, Uruguay, January 27
and February 2 (adult male taken) ; Lazcano, Uruguay, February
5 to 9 (female in immature dress shot) ; Rio Negro, Uruguay, February
14 (adult male and immature female killed).
Plumage in this species is highly variable from the heavily
streaked juvenal dress to the rich color of the adult, so that almost
every shade between the two may be found. Chubb ^^ has remarked
that northern birds have longer wings than those from the south and
west, a distinction that is not evident in the series before me. This,
however, does not include skins from Paraguay.
A male taken February 14 is in full molt.
This finch frequented saw-grass swamps, re:ds bordering lagoons
and channels, thickets growing in low, wet grounds, or gi'owths
of weeds bordering canefields in low situations, where it sought
heavy cover and only appeared when alarmed to look about for
an instant or to fly away w^th quickly tilting flight. Only occasion-
ally was it observed resting in the open.
POOSPIZA WHITH Sclater
Poospiza whitii Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1883, p. 43, pi. 9.
(Cordoba.)
An immature female was taken April 10, 1921, at Tapia, Tucuman,
from a perch in the top of a bush near a growth of weeds.
It differs from the female of P. nigro-rufa in having nearly half of
the distal end of the outer rectrix white, in paler flanks, paler
dorsal surface, and more white on the breast.
A male collected at Salta, July 30, 1921, by D. S. Bullock, differs
in general from mgro-rufa as does the female mentioned above,
but has the white in the tail slightly less extensive.
2»Ibis, 1910, p. 640.
54207—26 28