I procured specimens of this bird from Bahia Blanca, in Northern Patagonia, and likewise from the Falkland Islands, where it is not uncommon. When first killed, its legs and beak appear of larger size, compared to its body, than in other species of this genus. In the Falkland Islands it lives, almost exclusively, close to the ground, in the coarse grass which springs from the peaty soil. I do not think I ever saw a bird which, when it chose to remain concealed, was so difficult to disturb. I have frequently marked one down to within a yard on the open grassy plain, and afterwards have endeavoured, quite in vain, by walking backwards and forwards, over the same spot, to obtain another sight of it.
1. Synallaxis humicola. Kittl.
S. humicola, Kittl. Mem. de l’Acad. St. Peters, i. pl. 6.—Id. Vog. von Chili, p. 13, pl. vi.
Not uncommon in the neighbourhood of Valparaiso. Kittlitz has well described its habits. He says it lives on the ground under thickets, that it is active in running about, and that it readily flies from bush to bush. It holds its tail upright; utters a shrill, quickly reiterated cry; feeds on insects; but Kittlitz found in the stomach chiefly grains and berries, with little stones. From these circumstances, he conceives that this bird shews some affinity with Pteroptochos, but I feel no doubt that in the form of its beak, wings, tail, manner of carrying the latter, kind of plumage, sound of voice and habits, the relationship is much closer with Eremobius, which perhaps it may be considered as representing on the Pacific side of the Cordillera. Its tongue is furnished with bristly points, but apparently is less deeply bifid than in the other species of Synallaxis or Limnornis. I obtained both sexes, but there is no difference in their plumage.
For the reason just given, I have put this species at the head of its genus, and therefore nearest to Eremobius, although it is impossible to represent by a linear arrangement, the multiplied relations between the following genera—Furnarius, Uppucerthia, Opetiorhynchus, Eremobius, Anumbius, Synallaxis, Limnornis, Oxyurus; and again, Rhynomya, Pteroptochos, Scytalopus, and Troglodytes, which, with the exception of the last, are strictly South American forms.
2. Synallaxis major. Gould.
Plate XXII.
S. olivaceo fuscus; infra fulvus albo distinctè maculatus; plumis singulis stria obscura centrali notatis; fronte rufo, remigibus fuscis, cinereo-fusco externè maculatis, tertiariis nigro fuscis apice margineque latè cinereo-fuscis; gulâ albâ, plumarum flavescentium serie fusco maculatarum circumdatâ.
Long. tot. 8 unc.; rost. 1; alæ, 3¼; caudæ, 4; tarsi, 1.
Forehead rufous; crown of the head, back of the neck and back olive brown, with a conspicuous stripe of blackish brown down the centre of each feather; wing-coverts and lower part of the back olive brown, with a faint trace of the dark patch in the centre of each feather; primaries brown, margined externally with greyish brown; spurious wing and secondaries rufous tipped with brown; tertiaries blackish brown broadly margined and tipped with greyish brown; two centre tail feathers dark olive brown; the remainder blackish brown largely tipped with white; throat white encircled with a series of feathers of a buff colour spotted with dark brown; breast and all the under surface tawny indistinctly blotched with white; tarsi with a very pale blue tinge.