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

426 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATP.S NATIONAL MUSEUM
clumps of cola de zorro^ a plumed grass, standing amid thickets of
thistles. The birds were usually in pairs, though in the Chaco,
where they were common, five or six frequently congregated. They
fed in little open places on the ground where they walked al^out
sedately, or when in a hurry progressed with long hops. Their
flight was rapidly tilting. When excited they perched in low bushes
or clumps or grass, appearing big and bluff as they are strong and
robust of body. During winter, males sang an absurd little whispered
song that was barely audible at 50 meters, but with the opening
of the nesting season they became more noisy and sang persistently
a curious accented song. The strangely phrased notes may be
represented as oo to fa la tsuf la tsee. Their call is a faint tsip.
Occasionally one came hopping about camp in search of bread
crumbs, and they often pecked avidly at bits of cooked meat or at
freshly skinned bird bodies. Their tameness under such circum-
stances has given them the name of toldero in eastern Buenos Aires.
In the Chaco they were known as Juan che vido, while elsewhere
they were called cotorron or cotorrito.
Young in streaked juvenal i^lumage were taken at Guamini,
Buenos Aires, March 3. The plumage of adults is subject to much
wear and abrasion, perhaps from the saw-edged grasses amid which
they live, so that the green shade of the upper surface changes to
gray; in some the prominent dark streaks of the back entirely dis-
appear.
An adult male, taken July 9, had the upper part of the maxilla
blackish slate; sides of maxilla and mandible zinc orange; iris
dark brown; tarsus sayal brown; toes and claws hair brown; underside
of toes yellowish. A juvenile male, taken March 3, had
the maxilla (except at sides adjacent to the feathers) and a stripe
along sides of mandible dull black; base of maxilla and lower margin
of mandibular rami chamois, shading at margin to antimony
yellow; anterior half of cutting edge of mandible and region over
gonys slightly paler than avellaneous; iris natal brown; tarsus between
benzo brown and fuscous; nails blackish.
EMBERNAGRA OLIVASCENS OLIVASCENS d'Orbigny
Enibernagra oUvascens d'ORBiGNY, Voy. Amer. M6rid., Ois., 1835-1844, p.
285. (Enquisivi, Province of Sicasica, Palca, Province of Ayupapa,
and valley of Cochabamba.)
The present species is distinguished from E. jjlatensis by the plain,
unstreaked back. The typical subspecies is represented by a bird
molting from juvenal to first fall plumage secured at Tapia, Tucuman,
on April 6, 1921. This is distinctly greener above than skins
of E. 0. gossei of similar age. An adult male taken August 7, 1922,