Bulletin - United States National Museum - si-pddr - Smithsonian ...

118 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
the sternum. The sternotrachealis muscles are inserted as usual
on the costal processes of the sternum.
The flesh of these birds is excellent eating but the sport in their
huntino- lies entirely in the care and skill necessary to stalk them
successfully. It is seldom that they give an open wing shot, but,
on the contrary, offer snapshots as they run away along limbs.
In the series of seven fresh skins at hand individual variation
seems to cover the phase described by Cherrie and Reichenberger
from Suncho Corral, Santiago del Estero as Ortalis cardcollis grisea^
though the skins in question come from Formosa and the Paraguayan
Chaco near Puerto Pinasco. With the somewhat limited material
at hand subspecies may not be recognized. Wagler based his descrip-
tion of canicoUis on Azara's account of the Yacii-caraguata so that
his type locality must be located in southern Paraguay or the adjacent
provinces of Argentina. (Azara remarks that the bird was
not known south of 27° S. latitude.)
Order GRUIFORMES
Family RALLIDAE
FULICA ARMILLATA Vieillot
Fulica armillata Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. 12, 1817, p. 47.
(Paraguay.)
This large coot was common in the cafiadones near Lavalle, Buenos
Aires, where, near the Estancia Los Yngleses, an adult female
was shot on October 29, 1920. The birds were found on open pools
or among rushes, and swam about with nodding heads and other
mannerisms typical of the genus. They were nesting and I believed
that nests containing large handsomely marked eggs belonged to
this species, but after considerable effort I was unable to identify
the owners definitely, and did not take them.
At General Roca, Rio Negro, from November 30 to December 3
a band of nearly 100 of the present species, with a few F. leucop-
tera frequented an open space in a quiet channel near the river.
I killed two males, and a male white-winged coot, at a single shot
on November 30. (PL 16.) The birds fed in scattered company,
but when alarmed gathered in a close flock. There was some mating
activity among those of the present species, and males gave
an occasional mating display in which they arched the neck, raised
the tips of the wings, half closed the eyes, and opened the mouth.
Though they turned toward their mates in these maneuvers they
took care to guard against a savage bill thrust by remaining at a
safe distance. Among themselves males, when not alarmed, were
•Amer. Mus. Nov., No. 27, Dec. 28, 1921, p. 2.