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Show 1870.] MR. P. L. SCLATER ON BIRDS FROM THE PARANA. 57 I will only add that the cranium of the Dinornis, torn. cit. pl. 38. fig. 41, that figured in vol. iv. pl. 24. fig. 4, and a few other mutilated crania not figured show the basal aperture which Dr. Haast rightly, I believe, conjectures to have been made for the purpose of extracting the brain. 2. O n some new or little-known Birds from the Rio Parana. B y P. L. S C L A T E R , M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. (Plate III.) The authorities of the Smithsonian Institution have kindly submitted to m y examination a small collection of bird-skins from various parts of South America, belonging principally to the difficult groups of Tyrannidae, Dendrocolaptidee, and others, which it is almost impossible to determine without the assistance of a large series of named specimens. Amongst these are several skins obtained during the second American expedition to the Rio Parana, under the command of Capt. T. J. Page, U.S.N., in 1859-60. Some of these belong to very interesting species, such as Casiornis rubra (Vieill.), Hapalocercus pectoralis (Vieill.)*, Stiymatura budytoides (Lafr. et d'Orb.)f, Euscarthmus margaritaceiventris (Lafr. et d'Orb.), and Empidagra suiriri (Vieill.). Two others, which have particularly attracted m y attention, are a specimen of the scarce Synallaxine form Coryphistera alaudina of Burmeister and a rather obscure Tyrant-bird, which I propose to describe as new. The single skin of Coryphistera alaudina (Plate III.) is the only example that I have ever seen of this bird besides the original specimens of Burmeister, which were obtained in the neighbourhood of the city of Parana. It is marked " Vermejo, Feb. 1860," by which, I suppose, is intended the Rio Vermejo-a confluent of the Paraguay above its junction with the Parana. It agrees generally with Bur-meister's description (La Plata-Reise, ii. p. 4 70), and belongs, without doubt, to a well-marked and rather isolated form, to be located, as Burmeister has arranged it, near to Synallaxis and Anumbius, but presenting some points of analogical resemblance to the Crested Larks. Burmeister does not notice the white lores and eye-ring and the chestnut ear-coverts, which form a conspicuous feature iu this bird; but his description is otherwise generally accurate. Of the Tyrant-bird above alluded to, there is likewise only a single skin, labelled "male: Corumba, Brazil, July 1859 "t- Its colour * Cf. Pelzeln, Orn. Bras. p. 103. f Cf. Sclat. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1866, p. 188. 1 Corumba is a Brazilian settlement on the Upper Paraguay in the province of Mutto-Grosso, about 120 miles above Coimbra. See Page's ' La Plata, the Argentine Confederation, and Paraguay' (New York, 185'J), p. 187. |
