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 im- 

 mature 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 run- 

 ning 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 ex- 

 tended, 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 



