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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.
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