The subspecies of Aratinga acuticaudata

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FIELDIANA • ZOOLOGY

Published by
CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

Volume 31 October 20, 1947 No. 21

THE SUBSPECIES OF
ARATINGA ACUTICAUDATA

Emmet R. Blake
Associate Curator, Division of Birds

Melvin A. Traylor, Jr.

Associate, Division op Birds

In the course of identifying an extensive collection of birds made
by Francisco Steinbach in the Departments of Cochabamba and
Santa Cruz, Bolivia, we encountered a series of Aratinga acuti-
caudata representing an apparently undescribed race. While study-
ing this race we borrowed practically all the material of this species
in this country, and it was decided to extend the study to include
a revision of the series of forms that make up the species. For the
loan of valuable comparative material we are indebted to the
authorities of the following institutions: Museum of Comparative
Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; American Museum of Natural
History, New York; United States National Museum, Washington,
D.C.; and Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh.

The first description of Aratinga acuticaudata was published by
Azara (1802) under the name Maracana cabeza azulada, and in
1817 Vieillot based his Psittacus acuticaudatus on this description.
Azara had only a single specimen from Paraguay, and it was ap-
parently a young bird, since he failed to mention the blue sides of
the head that are diagnostic of acuticaudata. Therefore, when Spix
described Aratinga haemorrhous from Bahia, Brazil, in 1824, his
description differed in such slight detail from that of Vieillot that
haemorrhous was placed in the synonymy of acuticaudata by Wagler
n his monograph of the Psittacidae. The first author to describe
:he adult form of acuticaudata, in which the sides of the head are
olue, was des Murs, who described and figured a specimen sent back
from Corrientes, Argentina, by D'Orbigny. Des Murs assumed,
however, that this specimen represented the adult male and that
both Spix and Azara had described their species from females. It

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164 FIELDIANA: ZOOLOGY, VOLUME 31

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was not until Souance^s studies of the parrots in the Masseria
collection (1856) that the validity of haemorrhous was recognized
and both forms were given specific rank.

A third species was added to this group by Cory (1909), who
named Conurus neoxenus from Margarita Island, Venezuela. Later,
in his Catalogue of Birds of the Americas (1918) Cory reduced this
form to a subspecies of haemorrhous. Hellmayr (1929) discussed
the group as a whole, and came to the conclusion that the differences
separating acuticaudata and haemorrhous were of subspecific value
only, particularly since three specimens of acuticaudata from Urucum
de Corumba, Matto Grosso, seemed intermediate. He therefore
placed the three forms in a single species under the name acuticau-
data, and this arrangement was followed by Naumberg and Peters.
In the present revision, for which 126 specimens were available for
study, the concept of a single species has been upheld and three
races are recognized, one of them previously undescribed.

Aratinga acuticaudata acuticaudata Vieillot

Psittacus acuticaudatus Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., 25, p. 369, 1817 —
Paraguay, 24° S. Lat. (based on Azara no. 278).

Diagnosis. — Adult: the blue of the forehead and crown extending
over the sides of the head and throat; the lower mandible black;
the general coloration green with a faint wash of blue.

Young: the* blue of the head restricted to the forehead and
crown; the blue wash lacking on the body plumage.

Range. — From extreme southwestern Matto Grosso (Urucum de
Corumba) and the lowlands of eastern Bolivia south through Para-
guay, Corrientes, Argentina, and Uruguay to the provinces of Buenos
Aires, Pampa, and Tucuman, Argentina.

Measurements.— Wing: 38 males, 183-205 mm. (193.9); 31
females, 181-197 (189.8).

Remarks. — In seventy-two specimens available for study from
all parts of the above range except Uruguay, there is no evidence of
consistent geographic variation within this subspecies. The blue
on the head and the general bluish wash over the body appear most
intense on a series of ten birds from the Paraguayan Chaco, but
this coloration may be due to the freshness of the skins, which have
all been collected since 1940. Individually, they can be matched
by specimens from all parts of the range, although on the whole
the blue is more intense. Wetmore reported that specimens from

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BLAKE AND TRAYLOR: ARATINGA ACUTICAUDATA 165

Pampa and Tucuman seemed slightly duller green than those from
Formosa, but this difference is not apparent when large series are
compared. In size there is no variation in any part of the range.

Aratinga acuticaudata haemorrhous Spix

Aratinga haemorrhous Spix, Av. Bras., 1, p. 29, pi. 13, 1824 — Province of

Bahia.
Conurus neoxenus Cory, Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Orn. Ser., 1, p. 243, 1909 —

Margarita Island, Venezuela.

Diagnosis. — Adult: differs from acuticaudata in having the blue
of the head paler and restricted to the front part of the crown, the
lower mandible pale like the upper, and the green of the body
golden green without any bluish wash; smaller.

Young: blue restricted to forehead only, or replaced by a brownish
color.

Range. — From northern Venezuela and adjacent Colombia to
eastern Brazil (Piauhy, Parahyba, and Bahia) and southern Matto
Grosso. Apparently never taken in British Guiana or Brazil north
of the Amazon.

Measurements. — Wing: 15 males, 171-202 mm. (183.7); 14
females, 167-193 (180.3).

Remarks. — This race is poorly represented in collections. Only
thirty-two specimens were available for the present study, and
twenty-one of these were from Venezuela. Five were cage birds
or were labeled only "Brazil." Five were from definite localities
in Brazil, and of these one male from Bahia and a second from
Parahyba are the only two that can with certainty be considered
typical; the other three were from southern Matto Grosso.

Despite the wide and discontinuous range of this form, there
are no consistent geographical variations,, and it is necessary to
reduce Cory's race neoxena, of Margarita Island, to synonymy.
Cory separated that form on the basis of two skins, but we do not
know what comparative material was available to him. At that
'time there were no specimens of haemorrhous in Chicago Museum,
and he may have based his comparisons on the descriptions of other
authors. The characters on which he separated neoxena were the
bluish tone of the body plumage and the increased extent of the blue
on the crown. The latter character is not apparent when the type
is compared with an adequate series from Venezuela, but the former
character is. However, the type differs as much in this respect from
two other specimens from Margarita Island as it does from mainland

166 FIELDIANA: ZOOLOGY, VOLUME 31

specimens, and it is apparent that Cory chose an extreme of in-
dividual variation as his type. The series of specimens from Vene-
zuela exhibits a wide range of individual variation in the general
color of the bird, and the Margarita Island birds fall within the
extremes. Another character, the greater extent of the green tips
on the inner web of the rectrices, which Cory mentioned in a foot-
note in his Catalogue of Birds of the Americas, is entirely dependent
upon the amount of wear to which the feathers have been subjected.

There has been a certain disagreement concerning the relation
between Venezuelan and Brazilian birds. Berlepsch and Hartert
(1902) considered them identical, and Cory himself included Vene-
zuela within the range of haemorrhous and restricted neoxena to
Margarita Island. .Peters, on the other hand, included Venezuela
within the range of neoxena, and Phelps (1940), in his discussion of
birds of Margarita Island, included northeastern Venezuela within
the range of that race. However, in the extensive series before us
there is no evidence of variation within Venezuela (including
Margarita Island), or between Venezuelan and Brazilian specimens,
and the race neoxena apparently can not be upheld.

The three specimens from Fazenda Capao Bonito, Matto Grosso,
agree in all particulars with the birds of northeastern Brazil and
Venezuela except in size. They are so much larger, wing 193-202
as compared to 170-192, that one would be tempted to separate
them except for the measurements of the five specimens of unknown
provenance whose range of 181-193 is intermediate. There is a
possibility that further collecting would show a steady increase in
size from north to south. Although Capao Bonito is only 240 miles
from Urucum de Corumba, where Cherrie collected specimens of
acuticaudata, there is no sign of intergradation in the three speci-
mens of haemorrhous. This, however, might be expected since
Urucum is on the edge x>f the Chaco, where acuticaudata is found,
and Capao Bonito is in the central Brazilian tableland where birds
representative of the interior of Bahia and Piauhy would be more
likely to occur.

Aratinga acuticaudata neumanni1 subsp. nov.

Type from Comarapa, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Altitude 2,500
meters. No. 179076 Chicago Natural History Museum. Adult
male. Collected; July 15, 1926, by Fr. Steinbach. Orig. No. 204.

1 Named for the late Professor Oscar Neumann, who recognized the sub-
species as new, but who unfortunately died before he was able to describe it.

BLAKE AND TRAYLOR: ARATINGA ACUTICAUDATA 167

Diagnosis.— Adult: differs from A. a. acuticaudata in having the
blue of the head restricted to the forehead and crown, and the
sides of the head and throat not blue, but the same green, with a
pale bluish bloom, as the rest of the under parts. Differs from
haemorrhous in being darker, less golden green above and below,
and in having the blue of the head darker and extending back to
the nape instead of being confined to the front half of the crown.
Resembles closely the juvenile form of acuticaudata, but the blue
on the crown of neumanni is usually more extensive. Slightly larger
than acuticaudata and significantly larger than haemorrhous. Color
of soft parts: tarsus orange, upper mandible orange, lower mandible
slate-colored.

Young: either similar to the adult, or not represented in the
present series.

Range. — Intermediate altitudes (5,000-8,500 feet) in the Depart-
ments of Cochabamba, Santa Cruz (and Chuquisac^, Tomina?),
Bolivia.

Measurements. — Wing: 13 males, 185-204 (195.4); 9 females,
192-203 (195.8).

Remarks. — This is a well-characterized race, which can have
escaped detection up to the present only by virtue of its close
resemblance to the young of acuticaudata. Although at first glance
it seems more nearly related to haemorrhous because of the restriction
of the blue to the crown, its general coloration and size place it nearer
acuticaudata. Since it is also closer geographically, it must certainly
be an altitudinal race of the latter. Five thousand feet is determined
to be the lower limit, since birds from an elevation of 4,000 feet
in Salta, Argentina, are true acuticaudata.

The size ranges in the wing measurements of the three races of
acuticaudata are:

A. a. acuticaudata: 38 males, 183-205 (193.9); 31 females, 181-197
(189.8).

A. a. haemorrhous: 15 males, 171-202 (183.7); 14 females, 167-193
(180.3).

A. a. neumanni: 13 males, 185-204 (195.4); 9 females, 192-203

(195.8).

It is apparent that haemorrhous is a small race, and could almost
be separated on size alone, except for the three large specimens from
Capao Bonito, Matto Grosso. These three have wing measurements

168 FIELDIANA: ZOOLOGY, VOLUME 31

of 193, 195, and 202, and if more intensive collecting should show
this large size to be constant, they may prove separable.

The wing measurements also show a further distinction between
neumanni on the one hand and acuticaudata and haemorrhous on
the other. In the former the sexes are the same size while in the
latter two the females are slightly but significantly smaller.

Specimens examined. — Aratinga a. acuticaudata: Bolivia: Santa
Cruz (Sara, Camp Wood, 4 females; Tacuiba, 3 males, 1 female;
Santa Cruz, 4 males, 3 females; Buenavista, 2 males, 4 females; Rio
Surutu, 2 males; Cercado, 1 male). Brazil: Matto Grosso (Urucum
de Corumba, 1 male, 2 females). Paraguay: Chaco (Colonia
Fernheim, 4 males, 2 females; Orloff , 3 males, 1 female) . Argentina:
Salta (2 males, 2-); Formosa (Riacho Pelage, 2 males); Chaco
(Vermejo, 1-; Mocovi, 1 male; Avia-terai, 1 female); Santa Fe
(Ocampo, 2 males, 4 females) ; Santiago del Estero (Suncho Corral,

3 males, 1 female; La Valle, 1 female); Tucuman (Tapia, 5 males,

4 females, t-; Tucuman, 1 male, 1 female); Cordoba (Cosquin,

1 female; "Cordoba," 1 male); Pampa (Victorica, 1 male).

Aratinga a. haemorrhous: Venezuela: Margarita Island (Boca
del Rio, 2 males, 1 female [incl. type of neoxena]); San Mateo de
Caicara (1 female) ; Quiribana de Caicara (3 males) ; Caicara River,
Orinoco River (1 male, 1 female); Monagas (Carapaico, 1 female);
Guarico (El Sombrero, 1 male); Ciudad Bolivar (2 males, 1 [?]);
Lara (Tocuyo, 1 male, 5 females, 1 [?]). Colombia: Magdalena
(Riohacha, 1 female). Brazil: Bahia (Queimadas, 1 male); Para-
hyba (Joazeiro, 1 male); Matto Grosso (Fazenda Capao Bonito,

2 males, 1 female); "Brazil" (1-). Zoo birds: 1 male, 3 females.

Aratinga a. neumanni: Bolivia: Santa Cruz (Comarapa, 4 males,
2 females; Chilon, 3 males) ; Cochabamba (Ele-Ele, 2 males, 1 female;
Aiquile, 3 males, 4 females; Tujma, 1 male, 1 female); "Lajma"
(1 female).

REFERENCES
Azara, Felix de

1802-1805. Apuntamientas para la historia natural de los Paxaras del Para-
guay y Rio de la Plata. 3 vols. Madrid.

Berlepsch, (Count) Hans von, and Hartert, Ernst

1902. On the birds of the Orinoco region. Nov. Zool., 9, pp. 1-134, 1 pi.

Cory, Charles B.

1909. Birds of the Leeward Islands. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Orn. Ser., 1.

pp. 193-255, 1 pi.
1918. Catalogue of birds of the Americas. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Zool. Ser.,

13, pt. II, no. 1, 315 pp., 1 pi.

BLAKE AND TRAYLOR: ARATINGA ACUTICAUDATA 169

Des Murs, M. A.

1845-49. Iconographie ornithologique. 72 pis. Paris.

Hellmayr, Charles E.

1929. Contribution to the ornithology of northeastern Brazil. Field Mus.
Nat. Hist., Zool. Ser., 12, pp. 235-501, 1 pi.

Naumberg, Elsie M.

1930. Birds of Matto Grosso, Brazil. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 60y 432 pp.,
17 pis., 43 figs., 5 maps.

Peters, James Lee

1937. Check-list of birds of the world. 3, xiii+311 pp. Cambridge, Massa-
chusetts.

Phelps, W. H.

1940. Los Aves de Margarita (con anotaciones sistematicas por W. H. Phelps).
Bol.'Soc. Ven. Cien. Nat., 43, pp. 91-132.

Souance, Charles de

1856. Catalogue des Perroquets de la collection du Prince Massena d'Essling.
Rev. Mag. Zool., pp. 56-64.

Spix, J. B. VON

1824-25. Avium species novae, quas in itinere per Brasiliam. ... 2 vols.
Monachii.

VlEILLOT, L. S. P.

1816-19. Nouveau dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle. 36 vols. Paris.

Wagler, J. G.

1832. Monographia Psittacorum. Abh. K. Bayer. Akad. Wiss., 1, pp. 469-
750.