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

BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 145
extending the neck to full length unless on the wing. Their flight
was swift and direct, usually only a few feet above the sand, but
not infrequently, to avoid me, in a semicircle that carried them
over the dunes or out over the sea.
They were difficult to kill at any great distance because of their
dense plumage and heavily muscled bodies. A female and two males
were shot on November 3, and a second female on the day that
followed. The nesting season was about at hand, and it is probable
that some had eggs at that season, as females shot were nearly ready
to lay. One male in mating ardor pursued a female in swift flight
that carried them turning and dodging over the dunes along the
beach until the birds were lost to sight. On November 15, at the
mouth of the Rio Ajo again, where several oyster catchers were
seen, one pair had a nest somewhere on a small strip of sandy beach.
I hid behind a clump of grass and watched from a distance, but
though the birds returned in a short time, I failed to locate either
eggs or young.
At Ingeniero White, on December 13, an oyster catcher was eating
small crabs that it pursued quickly across the mud or secured by
pulling them out of holes sunk in the clay. Four oyster catchers
were recorded on the coast near Montevideo, Uruguay, on January
16, 1921, and several noted on the sandy beach at La Paloma, Rocha,
on January 23, may have had young, as they circled past me with
shrill whistles. The species is known locally as teru de la costa.
An adult female shot November 3 had the center of the bill between
scarlet red and jasper red, shading at base to a color between
bittersweet orange and flame scarlet, and at extreme tip to antimony
yellow; bare eyelids slightly darker than orange chrome; iris
cadmium yellow; tarsus and toes cartridge buff; nails buff.
The specimens taken, which have been placed in Doctor Murphy's
hands for study, are assumed to be the subspecies duinfordi of
Sharpe, but definite allocation is delayed pending his forthcoming
revision.
Family PHALAROPODIDAE
STEGANOPUS TKICOLOR VieiUot
Steganopus tiHcolor Vieuxot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. 32, 1819, p. 136.
(Paraguay.)
Wilson's phalarope was recorded first at the mouth of the Rio
Ajo below Lavalle, Buenos Aires, on November 15, 1920, when four
were seen feeding on a mud bank. Later a flock of a dozen circled
past with soft honking calls and a female in full winter plumage
was taken. At Carhue, Buenos Aires, 40 were recorded December
15 in company with les.ser yellowlegs on mud bars in a brackish
water marsh behind a fringe of rushes that bordered Lake Epiquen,