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 



