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

BIEDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 41
form, must bear the subspecific name pallescens. Though Kothe
recorded a specimen from Tornquist in the Province of Buenos
Aires as Rhynchotus rufescens catingae Reiser, a form that ranges
far to the north in Piauhy, Brazil, at the same time he proposed for
it the designation pallescens, a name that has been usually over-
looked, as it has not been listed in the Zoological Record. I collected
a pair of these birds in the sand-dune region 15 miles south of
Cape San Antonio, Province of Buenos Aires, on November 4,
1920, and two others (one of which was preserved as a skeleton) on
November 6. The skull of a third specimen was secured on the
same day. An adult male taken on the Riacho Pilaga, Formosa,
on August 18 seems to represent a northern race, ranging between
pollescens of the pampas, and R. r. alleni of Matto Grosso. It
has the bold black markings and general gray cast of 'pallescens^
but differs in having the foreneck, hindneck, and upper breast
washed distinctly with brown, and the rictal stripe much heavier.
A bird in the collection of the National Museum from Cordoba is
somewhat intermediate between the birds of northern and central
Argentina, as it has a slight buify wash on the neck. I have considered
it inadvisable to describe the specimen from the Formosan
Chaco until further material is available.
The rufous-winged tinamou, though common in many localities,
is so shy that in spite of its size it is difficult to see and still more
difficult to collect. The call of the male, a musical, slow^ly given
whistle that bears a strong resemblance to the song of the Baltimore
oriole, may be heard frequently, but it requires careful stalk-
ing to obtain sight of the bird. In fact, for several months this
note was a puzzle to me. I heard it first at Las Palmas, Chaco,
and again at the Riacho Pilaga, Kilometer 182, Formosa, coming
from the long grass of the savannas. On many occasions I followed
the clear whistled call out across the open without catching sight
of the elusive musician, and, until I traced the note to its proper
source, I was inclined to attribute it to a blackbird, Gnoriniopsar
chopi^ a species almost ubiquitous in the Chaco that frequently
flushed from the spot from which the call seemed to come. At
Las Palmas in July I had a glimpse of one as it ran swiftly through
the grass at the border of a wood, but did not secure a specimen
until August 18, when at the Riacho Pilaga, one burst out at my
feet with a thunder of wings and rushed away 2 meters above the
ground, to be dropped at 40 meters with a charge of number eight
shot. In the Chaco, Indians were said to hunt the large tinamou
as they did the rhea, disguised by branches from a thick-leaved
bush, so that they resembled dense shrubs. Tinamou were lured
out into the open by an imitation of their whistle, and killed with
bow and arrow or shotgun by the hunter invested in his blind.