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188
BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM.
Range. — Southeastern Mexico to southeastern Brazil. (Many species.[1])
KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF SYNALLAXIS.
a. Pileum partly rufous, or else chest rufous. (Adults.)
- b. Pileum dull brown; chest cinnamon-rufous or chestnut-ruious. (Southeastern Mexico to Honduras)
Synallaxis erythrothorax, adults (p. 189).
- bb. Pileum partly cinnamon-rufous or rufous-chestnut; chest grayish or white.
- c. Greater wing-coverts and basal portion of primaries cinnamon-rufous or chestnut-rufous; chest slate-gray to blackish slate. (Synallaxis pudica.)
- d. Paler, the back, etc., olive-brown, tail brown, chest dull slate color or slate-gray. (Eastern Panamá to western Ecuadór.)
- c. Greater wing-coverts and basal portion of primaries cinnamon-rufous or chestnut-rufous; chest slate-gray to blackish slate. (Synallaxis pudica.)
Synallaxis pudica pudica (p. 191).
- dd. Darker, the back, etc., dark sooty brown, tail blackish brown, chest dark slate to blackish slate. (Western Panamá to southern Honduras.)
Synallaxis pudica nigrifumosa, adult (p. 192).
- cc. Greater wing-coverts and basal portion of primaries light brown or broccoli brown; chest light gray to white. (Synallaxis albescens.)
- d. Chest distinctly gray; brown of back, etc., darker.
- e. Larger (wing averaging 54 or more in male, more than 53 in female; tail averaging more than 69 in male, more than 66 in female).
- f. Slightly paler and smaller (wing averaging 54 in male, 55 in female; tail 69.7 in male, 73.5 in female). (Margarita Island, Venezuela.)
- e. Larger (wing averaging 54 or more in male, more than 53 in female; tail averaging more than 69 in male, more than 66 in female).
- d. Chest distinctly gray; brown of back, etc., darker.
- cc. Greater wing-coverts and basal portion of primaries light brown or broccoli brown; chest light gray to white. (Synallaxis albescens.)
Synallaxis albescens nesiotis (extralimital).[2]
- ff. Slightly darker and larger (wing averaging 56 in male, 54.7 in female; tail averaging 73 in male, 70.4 in female). (Colombia to Cayenne and Amazon Valley.)
Synallaxis albescens albigularis (extralimital).[3]
- ee. Smaller (wing averaging 52.2 in male, 49.9 in female; tail averaging 65.8 in male, 62.9 in female). (Southwestern Costa Rica and western Panamá)
Synallaxis albescens latitabunda (p. 194).
- ↑ In Sharpe's Hand-List of the Genera and Species of Birds, Vol. III, pp. 53-58 (1901), forty-nine species are referred to this genus. Of these I have examined about one-half, but the above generic diagnosis and description are based on the three Central American species and S. ruficapilla (type of the genus) alone. I am nearly convinced that the group requires subdivision, but it should not be attempted with so poor a representation of the species, and I therefore leave the problem for others to work out.
- ↑ Synallaxis albescens nesiotis Clark (A. H.), Auk, xix, July, 1902, 264 (Margarita Island, Venezuela; coll. E. A. and 0. Bangs).
- ↑ Synallaxis albigularis Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1858, 63 (eastern Ecuador; coll. Verreaux). — Synallaxis albescens albigularis Berlepsch and Hartert, Novit. Zool., ix, April, 1902, 59 (Caicará, Altagracia, and Suapuré, Venezuela; descr. nest and eggs). — Synallaxis albescens (not of Temminck) Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xv, 1890, 43, part.
I am not able to examine a specimen of S. albescens albescens during preparation of this key; indeed, the material available is, for all the forms, exceedingly scanty and unsatisfactory. The synonymy of S. a. albescens is as follows: Synallaxis albescens Temminck, Pl. Col., iii, livr. 38, Sept., 1823, pi. 227, fig. 2 (Brazil; coll. Mus. Pays-Bas); Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xv, 1890, 43, part. — Synallaxis albescens albescens Hellmayr, Novit. Zool., xv, 1908, 59 (crit.).
