Schizoeaca helleri Chapman, 1923b: 10

LECROY, MARY & SLOSS, RICHARD, 2000, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History. Part 3. Passeriformes: Eurylaimidae, Dendrocolaptidae, Furnariidae, Formicariidae, Conopophagidae, And Rhinocryptidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2000 (257), pp. 1-88 : 18-19

Schizoeaca helleri Chapman, 1923b: 10 (Cedrobamba,

Now Schizoeaca helleri Chapman, 1923 . See Fjeldså and

Krabbe, 1990: 363, and Ridgely and Tudor, 1994: 99.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 166536 , adult male, collected at Cedrobamba , ca. 13°05′S, 72°33′W, timberline, 12,000 ft, Cuzco, Peru, on 29 May 1915, by Edmund Heller (no. 131), on the Yale University– National Geographic Society Peruvian Expedition.

COMMENTS: Vaurie (1980: 72–78) considered this taxon to be a subspecies of S. fuliginosa .

Synallaxis cinereus Wied

Synallaxis cinereus Wied, 1831: 685 (“in den grossen

Urwäldern an der Strasse des Capitao Filisberto ”).

Now Synallaxis ruficapilla Vieillot, 1819 . See Allen,

1889b: 243, Cory and Hellmayr, 1925: 80–81, and Pacheco and Gonzaga, 1995.

SYNTYPES: AMNH 6811, female; 6812, male; 6813, male, collected by Maximilian, Prince of Wied. From the Maximilian Collection.

COMMENTS: There are five Maximilian specimens in AMNH that are labeled Synallaxis cinerea and a sixth specimen without an original label that belongs with this series. Allen (1889b: 243) discussed all of these specimens and considered them syntypes. We agree with him that the description by Wied clearly refers to S. ruficapilla Vieillot , as then understood, and that AMNH 6811, 6812, and 6813 conform to that description. AMNH 6811 appears to be the specimen referred to by Wied (1831: 687) as a young female. Wied also described an adult female as being similar to the male. This specimen does not now appear to be present in the AMNH. The other three specimens are AMNH 6814, the original label of which says both female juvenile and male imm., and which Allen labeled male; AMNH 6815, female; and AMNH 5204, unsexed. They are S. f. frontalis (Allen’s S. azarae ). Cory and Hellmayr (1925: 80) later regarded Synallaxis frontalis as specifically distinct from S. azarae .

Even though Wied’s description of S. cinereus applies to S. ruficapilla , the inclusion of specimens nos. 6814, 6815, and 5204 by Allen as part of the type series was undoubtedly based on the fact that 2 of the 3 were labeled S. cinerea by Wied. However, these three birds differ so much in size and appearance from the other three, and Wied’s text description is so exact, that we find it hard to believe that nos. 6814, 6815, and 5204 were includ- ed in his original type series. The name S. cinerea was perhaps added to the labels later by Wied in error, and we agree with Pacheco and Gonzaga (1995: 10) that the best solution is to consider S. cinereus inapplicable to S. frontalis . However, because of the uncertainty surrounding them, they have been retained with the types.

Vaurie (1980: 103) pointed out that Synallaxis stiffened, acuminate at the tips, with the three inner pairs moderately graduated, the fourth (or outer) rectrix quite short, but projecting conspicuously beyond the under tail coverts.” AMNH 6812 has the tail missing, but 3 loose feathers seem to have come from this specimen. AMNH 6811 has 8 rectrices, and AMNH 6813 has 6 rectrices, but it appears that the central pair is missing. The tails are worn on the 2 specimens that have tails, but they and the 3 loose feathers fit Vaurie’s description. These birds also have a rufous forehead and a bright superciliary.

According to Vaurie (1980: 104), Synallaxis frontalis has the tail “strongly rufous, composed of ten rectrices, and, relatively speaking, regularly but not very sharply graduated, not well stiffened, and with the tips rather blunt, not so sharply acuminate as in Synallaxis ruficapilla and S. superciliosa . ” AMNH 6814 and 6815 both have 10 rectrices that fit this description. AMNH 5204 has the tail in molt, but it agrees in feather shape with the other two. All three also have a brown band on the forehead and are lacking the superciliary streak.

Pacheco and Gonzaga (1995: 10) discussed these specimens in relation to their newly described Synallaxis whitneyi . We have compared our 3 syntypes, nos. 6811, 6812, and 6813, with a long series of S. ruficapilla , and find that the color of the underparts falls within the range of variation of that species; however, direct comparison of material of S. whitneyi with these syntypes would be desirable, given the frequent uncertainty as to Wied’s collecting localities. Wied’s locality for this species, “in den grossen Urwäldern an der Strasse Capitao Filisberto,” is, however, more exact than that for most of his specimens. Vanzolini (in litt.) has informed us that the Capitão Filisberto Road is the “main road inland from Ilheus, following the Rio Cachoeira along its left bank to the present Itabuna (then S. Pedro de Alcantara), through deep forest and then to the semi-arid caatingas of southeastern Bahia ” and equates it with Bokermann’s (1957: 246) Map 4, localities 161–173.