.--The Brown
Cachalote, Pseudosdsura lopbores (Rcichenbach), is a well-known furnariid of
northern Argentina and western Uruguay. It is about 10 inches long, crested, and
generally rufous in color, and is notable for its domed stick nest "the size of a
barrel," "made with enough material to fill a barrow" (Hudson, Birds of La Plata,
1: 232, 1920).
In Reichenbach's original description of Homorus lophotes (Handb. spec. Orn.,
cont. x, Scansoriae A. Sittinae: 172, 1853), the origin of his type specimen was
given as "Bolivia" with a query. I have been unable to determine why Reichen-
bach questioned the source of this type (which was destroyed in World War II).
Hellmayr (Cat. Bds. Americas, 4: 183, 1925) considered "Bolivia" as "no doubt
incorrect," and Peters (Check-list Bds. World, 7: 122, 1951) called it "probably
erroneous." These later authors may well have considered "Bolivia" an erroneous
locality not only because of Reichenbach's query, but because the species was not
otherwise known from the country of Bolivia. It is not listed in any of the major
papers on Bolivian birds.
Carnegie Museum possesses four specimens of Pseudoselsura lophotes collected
by Jos Steinbach on 23 and 25 August 1909 and 25 September 1915, at Guanacos,
Province of Cordillera, Dept. Santa Cruz, Bolivia (approximately 32 km. east-
southeast of Cabezas), altitude 700 meters. These appear to be the only known
Bolivian specimens of the species, but they serve to prove that the Brown Cachalote
does, indeed, occur in Bolivia. The four specimens have been compared with 39
from Argentina, representing the combined Carnegie Museum and American
Museum of Natural History series, and prove to be subspecifically separable. It
is conceivable that Pseudoseisura lopbores may ultimately be found to occur else-
where in Bolivia, and it thus seems desirable to establish a restricted type locality
for nominate lopbores. I therefore so desiguate Guanacos, the one Bolivian locality
from which the species is now known.
Although the Argentine race is technically the "new" one and must be named,
it is, of course, the well-known one and well represented in museums. I shall
therefore reverse the usual descriptive comparisons and describe the characters by
which the Bolivian (nominate) race is distinguishable from the Argentine.
To generalize, the Bolivian specimens are everywhere paler, with lighter brown
and rufous colors. Specifically, in the Bolivian birds:
1. The long, anterior crest feathers are more gray-brown, less blackish, with
the longest feathers relatively broader. In all specimens of this species, the
anterior crest feathers are dark, the posterior rufous; in Bolivian birds there are
more long rufous (i.e., fewer dark anterior) feathers in the crest.
2. The upperparts in general (nape, sides of face and neck, back, rump, upper
tail coverts) are paler rufous.
3. The tertials are paler, more rulescent (less blackish) brown.
4. The rectrices are paler, the central pair having shafts hardly darker than the
webs (in Argentine birds the shafts of the central rectrices are blackish brown).
5. The general tone of the underparts is paler, but this is more subtle than the
difference in dorsal coloration; best marked on throat and under tail coverts.
6. The throat and under tail coverts are not only paler rufous, but have the
light tips of fresh feathers less whitish, contrasting less with the ground color.
The darker bird, which occupies the range as given by Peters (loc. clt.) for the
species as a whole, may be called:
Pseudoselsura lopbores argentina, new subspecies.
Type: Carnegie Museum No. 137487; adult male in freshly molted plumage,
collected at La Cocha, Tucumfin, Argentina, 9 August 1956, by Claes Chr. Olrog.
The type specimen is one of a small collection of Argentine birds obtained by
Carnegie Museum through the generosity of Dr. F. W. Preston. Specimens in
the American Museum of Natural History were examined through the courtesy
of Dr. Dean Amadon.--KN'r C. PAxs, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, Penn-
sylvania.