Habitat, Maldonado, north bank of La Plata. (June).
This bird is not very common. Those which I saw lived on the ground in dry and open places, and did not frequent the neighbourhood of lakes abounding with rushes or thickets, like the greater number of species of Synallaxis, and the allied genus Limnornis. The flight of this bird is peculiar, which seems chiefly due to the length of its elegantly acuminated tail. It sometimes alights and rests on the summit of a thistle or twig, a habit different from that of any species of the genus which I have seen. Its manner of living and feeding on the ground might have been suspected, from the length of the soft secondaries, like those of a lark or of Furnarius cunicularius. The claws also of the front toes are produced and perhaps they are rather straighter than in other members of the family. The tongue is bifid and divided into bristly points. The nest, of which I have seen two, is very peculiar. It is cylindrical, about two feet long, and placed vertically in the middle of a thick bush in an exposed situation. It is made externally of prickly branches, and is very large compared with the size of the bird. The opening is at the upper extremity, from which a passage leads to the true nest, which is lined with feathers and hairs. There is a slight bend in the passage both at its exit and where it enters the nest.
Birds. Pl. 22.
Synallaxis major.
Birds. Pl. 23.
Synallaxis rufogularis.
3. Synallaxis rufogularis. Gould.
Plate XXIII.
S. olivaceo fuscus plumis singulis maculâ oblongâ fusco nigrâ; remigibus primariis secundariisque basi ferrugineo fuscis, apice nigro fuscis, flavescenti albo marginatis; lineâ superciliari, mento abdomineque medio flavescenti albis; gulâ ferrugineo fuscâ; pectore fulvescenti fusco, plumis singulis striâ pallidiore centrali ornatis.
Long. tot. 6½ unc.; rost. ⅞; alæ, 3; caudæ, 3¼; tarsi, 1.