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

BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, aND CHILE 79
Laguna Wall the birds frequented shallow, open pools in marshy
areas, and when flushed circled swiftly away low over the marsh
vegetation. The call of the female was a high-pitched, somewhat
varied note, that may be represented as qua-a^ qua-er or qua-ack.
Those taken were very fat.
The Anguete Indian called the present species pcA ro a pah^
while to my Lengua boy at Laguna Wall it w^as known as pil wa pah.
J^ETTION BRASILIENSE (Gmelin)
Ayias brasUiensis Gmelin, Syst. Nat., vol. 1, pt. 2, 1789, p. 517. (Brazil.)
At Kilometer 80, west of Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay, the Brazilian
teal was noted in small numbers in company with other ducks on
the bare, open shore of a large lagoon. The male of a mated pair
was crippled one morning, but was not actually recovered imtil
several days later on September 18, 1920, when I came across him
again. To my surprise the female bird, still accompanied him,
though the male was unable to fly. I recorded the note of the
male as a high, whistled call not so clear as that of the green-winged
teal. The call of the female was a loud qua-ack.
Near Rio Negro, in west central Uruguay, a few of these ducks
were seen about a small rush-grown lagoon near the shore of the
Rio Negro. Two males killed here on February 18, 1921, had com-
pleted the wing molt and were able to fly, though the new primaries
were not quite fully grown. New feathers were growing in over the
breast and back on these birds, but there is no indication of an
eclipse plumage, as old and new feathers are similar in color. These
two birds were past breeding, as the intromittent organs were
shrunken and small, though in one the testes were still 28 mm. long.
(In the other the testes were greatly reduced.) On this same occa-
sion, however, I noted several mated pairs, while males frequently
joined in little flocks so that sometimes four or five were found
together.
These ducks fed in the shallows of swampy lagoons or swam
about, threading their way through the floating surface plants that
in many places covered the water in a mat. On the wing the black
shoulder with the white bar on the tips of the secondaries showed
prominently, while with binoculars it was possible to see the elongate
patch of the white axillars alternately hidden and displayed with
the movement of the wings. The call note of the female, as noted
here, was a high pitched kack hack, while the males gave a high
swees swees swee that suggested the call of a wigeon. Males had
the habit, common among teal, of bowing to one another or to their
mates.
The colors of the soft parts in life in the male taken west of
Puerto Pinasco were as follows: Upper mandible between dark