Bulletin - United States National Museum - si-pddr - Smithsonian ...
Bulletin - United States National Museum - si-pddr - Smithsonian ... Bulletin - United States National Museum - si-pddr - Smithsonian ...
124 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM grass more rapidly, occasionally pausing at some opening to peer about. It was unusual to have them venture more than 2 meters from shelter. In small swamps in Uruguay, where dense shrubbery grew in less than a meter of water, a tangle so heavy as to be almost im- j)enetrable, these rails clambered about among the branches like gallinules, as much as 2 meters above water. Again, one was flushed from some scant cover of rushes or grass along a ditch through an alfalfa field, or one ran down to the water's edge at some river channel with comparatively high, brush-bordered banks. A male taken at General Roca on December 3 and a female shot February 18 at Rio Negro, Uruguay, were breeding. Near Tunuyan, Mendoza, toward the end of March, these rails were common, and were evidently in migration from colder regions in Patagonia. Marshes and cienagas were filled with them, while others were encountered in heavy growths of weeds, at the borders of hemp fields (one taken had hemp seed in the throat), or along irrigation ditches. At this time it was common for them when startled to flush from exceptionally heavy cover, almost certain proof that they were migrants, as no resident rail familiar with the runs and passages would think of leaving such excellent hiding places. The flight was rather swift and at times the birds rose 3 or 4 meters in the air. On the wing they appear almost black. An adult male shot December 3 had the base of the mandible and the side of the maxilla, below and behind the level of the nostril, madder brown ; small frontal shield and base of mandible yale blue center of bill mineral green, shading to dusky green toward tip ; slightly darker than ferruginous ; tarsus and toes between coral pink and light coral red; posterior face of tarsus clouded with fuscous. Females taken seemed as brilliant, and birds of both sexes shot in fall were equally bright. CRECISCUS MELANOPHAIUS (VieUIot Rallus melanophaius Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. 28, 1819, p. 549. (Paraguay.) At the Riacho Pilaga, Formosa, an adult female taken in the rushes bordering a lagoon was brought to me on August 8, 1920. The bird was known locally as canastita or in Guarani as batuitui. This specimen has the throat, breast, and abdomen pure white, with the barring on the posterior underparts restricted to the flanks and the white bars wider than the dark ones. Four specimens seen from Bahia and Sao Paulo, Brazil, have a reddish wash on the under sur- face with a much broader barred area on sides and flanks, that ex- tends over on the abdomen, where the dark bars are wider than the white ones. ; iris
BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 125 NEOCKEX ERYTHROPS (Sclater) Porzana erythrops, P. L. Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soe. London, 1867, p. 343, pi. 21. (Near Lima, Peru.) At Tapia, Tiicuman, on April 13, 1921, a peon brought me an immature specimen of Neocrex that he stated had been killed by a small weasel-like animal. The bird, apparently two-thirds grown, has the body plumage developed but wings and tail are not completely feathered. It is much darker above than an adult of erythro'ps from Lima, Peru, so that the Neocrex from Argentina may represent a dis- tinct form. According to Lillo ® the bird is common near the city of Tucuman. ARAMIDES CAJANEA CHIRICOTE (Vieillot) Rallus chiricote Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. 28, 1819, p. 551. (Paraguay.) The present species is more of a true wood rail in habit than A. ypecaha, as it frequented wooded swamps or small channels running through forests where dense cover was close at hand and did not venture into the broad pajonales, or saw-grass swamps, inhabited by its larger relative. My first one was seen September 30 on the forested bank of the Rio Paraguay, opposite Puerto Pinasco, where it was killed as it walked slowly along among dead weeds above the river's margin at the border of a thicket. This specimen, an adult male, when fresh had the tip of the bill bice green, shading to olive ocher at base; bare skin of eyelid, gape, and spot on the bare in- terramal space pompeian red; iris pecan brown; front of tarsus hydrangea red, shading to Corinthian red on posterior face; nails fuscous. At La Paloma, near Rocha, Uruguay, on January 23, 1921, as 1 rounded a sharp turn in a brush-grown arroyo cut between low, clay banks, I surprised one of these rails at rest on the odoriferous carcass of a horse that lay partly submerged in a pool of water. The bird stood with one leg drawn up against the body with no ap- parent discomfort from the horrible stench that rose around it, until, sighting me, it flew ashore and ran off through the brush. Near San Vincente on January 28 one ran with long strides, neck extended, and twitching tail, along trails made by cattle through heavy brush bordering a swamp, and was so alert that it eluded me in short order. Several were noted at the Paso Alamo on the Arroyo Sarandi on February 2, and on February 6 in forest bordering a pool on the Rio Cebollati below Lazcano I killed an immature female about two- thirds grown but not fully fledged, as rusty doAvns persist on the crown and the foreneck. Others were recorded at Rio Negro, Uru- guay, February 15 and 17. » An. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires, vol. 8, Oct. 2, 1902, p. 215. 54207—26 9
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124 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM<br />
grass more rapidly, occa<strong>si</strong>onally pau<strong>si</strong>ng at some opening to peer<br />
about. It was unusual to have them venture more than 2 meters from<br />
shelter. In small swamps in Uruguay, where dense shrubbery grew<br />
in less than a meter of water, a tangle so heavy as to be almost im-<br />
j)enetrable, these rails clambered about among the branches like gallinules,<br />
as much as 2 meters above water. Again, one was flushed from<br />
some scant cover of rushes or grass along a ditch through an alfalfa<br />
field, or one ran down to the water's edge at some river channel with<br />
comparatively high, brush-bordered banks.<br />
A male taken at General Roca on December 3 and a female shot<br />
February 18 at Rio Negro, Uruguay, were breeding.<br />
Near Tunuyan, Mendoza, toward the end of March, these rails were<br />
common, and were evidently in migration from colder regions in<br />
Patagonia. Marshes and cienagas were filled with them, while others<br />
were encountered in heavy growths of weeds, at the borders of hemp<br />
fields (one taken had hemp seed in the throat), or along irrigation<br />
ditches. At this time it was common for them when startled to flush<br />
from exceptionally heavy cover, almost certain proof that they were<br />
migrants, as no re<strong>si</strong>dent rail familiar with the runs and passages<br />
would think of leaving such excellent hiding places. The flight was<br />
rather swift and at times the birds rose 3 or 4 meters in the air. On<br />
the wing they appear almost black.<br />
An adult male shot December 3 had the base of the mandible and<br />
the <strong>si</strong>de of the maxilla, below and behind the level of the nostril,<br />
madder brown ; small frontal shield and base of mandible yale blue<br />
center of bill mineral green, shading to dusky green toward tip ;<br />
slightly darker than ferruginous ; tarsus and toes between coral pink<br />
and light coral red; posterior face of tarsus clouded with fuscous.<br />
Females taken seemed as brilliant, and birds of both sexes shot in fall<br />
were equally bright.<br />
CRECISCUS MELANOPHAIUS (VieUIot<br />
Rallus melanophaius Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. 28, 1819, p. 549.<br />
(Paraguay.)<br />
At the Riacho Pilaga, Formosa, an adult female taken in the<br />
rushes bordering a lagoon was brought to me on August 8, 1920.<br />
The bird was known locally as canastita or in Guarani as batuitui.<br />
This specimen has the throat, breast, and abdomen pure white, with<br />
the barring on the posterior underparts restricted to the flanks and<br />
the white bars wider than the dark ones. Four specimens seen from<br />
Bahia and Sao Paulo, Brazil, have a reddish wash on the under sur-<br />
face with a much broader barred area on <strong>si</strong>des and flanks, that ex-<br />
tends over on the abdomen, where the dark bars are wider than the<br />
white ones.<br />
;<br />
iris