LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 590.5 FI V.39 cop. 3 NATURAL HISrORY, SURVEY « it FIELDIANA: ZOOLOGY A continuation of the ZOOLOGICAL SERIES of FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY VOLUME 39 NATURAL HISrORV^ORVEY FEB 11 1971 IIRRARY FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY CHICAGO, U.S.A. ^l FIELDIANA • ZOOLOGY ' . O Published by CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM Volume 39 September 30, 1959 No. 32 I TWO NEW GAME BIRDS FROM PERU I Emmet R. Blake I Curator, Division op Birds I In working out collections made in Peru by Celestino Kalinowski and by the Conover Peru Expedition (1958) it was found that specimens of Crypturellus strigulosus and Odontophorus gujanensis could be assigned to no recognized race. It seems advisable to publish the present description of new forms in advance of a full report, which is now in course of preparation. For the loan of com- parative material and other courtesies I am indebted to the authorities of the following institutions: the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; the American Museum of Natural His- tory, New York; the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; and Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh. Crypturellus strigulosus peruvianus, new subspecies Type. — Chicago Natural History Museum no. 19702 (Conover Collection), from Collpa, left bank of Rio Tambopata, Madre de Dios, Peru. Adult female, ovary enlarged. Collected August 26, 1958, by Emmet R. Blake. Original number 14010. Diagnosis. — Similar to C. s. strigulosus but entire throat virtually pure white, lores and sides of head duller and darker reddish, the gray of the under parts more extensive posteriorly, and the white area of the abdomen severely reduced. Measurements. — Wing, 169; tail, 47; exposed culmen, 25 mm. Range. — Known only from the unique type. Presumably resident in the heavily wooded lowlands of southeastern Peru and adjacent parts of Brazil and Bolivia. Remarks. — Individual variation in the nominate form is expressed principally in the coloring of the throat and under parts. Diversity of color in these areas is not related to age, sex, or locality. The twenty-one Brazilian specimens of both sexes now before me prob- ably represent the complete range of variation to be found in strigu- Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 59-15626 ,.^0^876 .... - 373 ^'sroRy suRVFx 874 FIELDIANA: ZOOLOGY, VOLUME 39 losus yet all are essentially gray-breasted birds having more or less intensely reddish or buffy throats and, with a single exception, con- spicuously white or buffy white bellies. The exception, a male from Igarap^ do Gordao, Rio Jurud, Ama- zonas, is much like peruvianus below, but has vermiculated (not boldly barred) flanks and a conspicuously reddish throat that is in striking contrast to the throat of peruvianus. This specimen, inci- dentally, is from a region that has been assigned to the proposed race, hellmayri, a vaguely characterized form which, for reasons set forth below, I consider a fortuitous variant of typical strigulosus. It is perhaps noteworthy that, unlike the white- throated type of peruvi- anus, birds of the Brazilian series with the palest throats tend to have the whitest under parts. The acknowledged range of C. s. strigulosus extends from the Para district of Brazil westward (south of the Amazon River) to extreme northeastern Peru, where it was reported by Zimmer (1938, p. 50) on the lower Rio Ucayali at Lagarto, Loreto. It has also been taken in northern Bolivia at Victoria, a locality on the lower Rio Beni, Territorio de Colonias (Gyldenstolpe, 1945b, p. 33). Thus strigulosus completely encompasses and probably is identical with the proposed race, hellmayri, of the upper Rio Jurua and west bank of the upper Rio Madeira. Even more conclusive is the fact that two specimens from Hyutanahan, Rio Purus, a locality almost directly between the type locality of hellmayri and its westernmost limits on Rio Jurua, are reported by Todd (1942, p. 22) as being practically indistinguish- able from Rio Tapajos specimens. In view of these circumstances hellmayri can no longer be maintained as a distinct form and so becomes a synonym of strigulosus. Odontophorus gujanensis rufogularis, new subspecies Type. — Chicago Natural History Museum no. 19568 (Conover Collection), from Quebrada Esperanza, Rio Javary-Mirim, Loreto, Peru. Altitude 200 meters. Adult male collected September 15, 1957, by Celestino Kalinowski. Diagnosis. — Similar to 0. g. pachyrhynchus of central eastern Peru (Junin and Ayacucho) but entire throat, sides of head and sides of neck uniformly bright chestnut, this sharply defined posteriorly; bill decidedly heavier; under parts much grayer and duskier, less ochra- ceous tawny, the barring obsolescent or lacking; rump and upper tail coverts darker and duskier. Differs from duskiest examples of 0. g. huckleyi of eastern Ecuador and northern Peru north of the Rio FX v.. 3? 'At 5 X BLAKE: TWO NEW GAME BIRDS FROM PERU 375 Maraflbn cmefly in the conspicuous reddish coloring of the head, the greater size of the bill, and the reduction or loss of the ventral barring. Measurements. — Wing, 143, 150; tail, 63, 69; culmen from base, 20, 21; greatest depth of bill, 14, 15 mm. Range. — Known only from two adults (cf, 9) collected above San Vicente on Rio Javary-Mirim, a northern tributary of upper Rio Javary, Loreto, Peru. Remarks. — This form is strikingly distinct from any known rela- tive. Although combining certain characters both of buckleyi and of pachyrhynchus, the two adjacent races of gujanensis, these characters are so accentuated in rufogularis as to eliminate the concept of an intermediate link in a continuing cline. Geographically, as well as in similarity of body plumage, rufogu- laris is nearest buckleyi. Evidently the two are separated only by the width of the Rio Marafion, a stream of sufficient magnitude after its emergence from the Andes to act as a serious obstacle for essen- tially terrestrial forest birds. The isolating factors that separate rufogularis from pachyrhynchus of central eastern Peru are less evi- dent. In view of their fundamental similarity it is not unlikely that when material from the intervening region (Loreto) becomes avail- able the two will prove to represent the extremes of a cline that is revealed most conspicuously in the coloring of the head and, to a lesser degree, in the modification of the body plumage. The nominate race occupies a very extensive range and is subject to considerable individual variation that has led to the formal sepa- ration of several alleged races. Two of these, rufina Spix of lower Amazonia and snethlagei Pinto of the middle reaches of the Amazon River (Manacapuru and Santar^m), were recognized as individual variants and reduced to synonymy by Hellmayr and Conover (1942, pp. 263, 264, footnotes). Of greater interest in the present connection are an adult male from the right bank of the upper Rio Negro (Sao Pedro), deposited in the Vienna Museum, and a female from Manacapuru, Amazonas, in Chicago Natural History Museum. The former has been discussed at length by Hellmayr and Conover (1942, p. 263, footnote). Both birds are remarkable in having the sides of the head and entire throat down to the foreneck bright rufous chestnut, a circumstance that might appear to compromise the status of rufogularis. However, it is noteworthy that the Sao Pedro and Manacapuru specimens have the characteristic and distinctive body plumage of gujanensis, a form in which individual variation of the head coloring is commonplace. 376 FIELDIANA: ZOOLOGY, VOLUME 39 and represent localities contiguous to the main reservoir of the typ- ical form. By way of contrast, rufogularis is an isolated, rufous- headed population with the dusky body plumage of the gray-headed form, buckleyi. REFERENCES Gyldenstolpe, Nils 1945a. The bird fauna of Rio Jurud in western Brazil. Kungl. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl., 22, no. 3, 338 pp. 1945b. The ornithology of northern Bolivia. Kungl. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl., 23, no. 1, 300 pp. Hellmayr, Charles E., and Conover, Boardman 1942. Catalogue of birds of the Americas. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Zool. Ser., 13, pt. 1, no. 1, 636 pp. Todd, W. E. Clyde 1942. List of the tinamous in the collection of the Carnegie Museum. Ann. Carnegie Mus., 29, pp. 1-29. ZiMMER, John T. 1938. A new form of Crypturellus nociivagus. Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 51 : 47-52.