On the Birds observed in the Gran Chaco. 215 



XXI. — On the Birds observed during a Second Zoological 

 Ewjjedition to the Gran Chaco. By J. Graham Kerr. 



In 'The Ibis-* for 1893"^ I published au account of the 

 avifauna of the region of the Gran Chaco traversed by the 

 lower reaches of the River Pilcomayo. Spending, as I did 

 during the Pilcomayo Expedition, practically the whole of 

 my time in hunting and collectings for the most part in 

 company with small parties of Toba Indians, I was enabled 

 to compile a fairly complete list of the birds. I have 

 recently had occasion to visit the Gran Chaco again ; this 

 time, however, some 200 miles to the northward of the 

 Pilcomayo. The object of my second expedition having been 

 the accomplishment of a definite piece of zoological research 

 — an investigation into the breeding-habits and embryology 

 of the South-American Lung-fish, Lepidosiren paradoxa — I 

 thought it necessary to concentrate my energies upon the 

 solution of the special problem which I had set myself, and 

 I therefore made no attempt to amass general collections. 

 As, however, the particular part of the Gran Chaco in which 

 ray investigations were carried on has not hitherto, so far 

 as I am aware, been visited by any ornithologist, it may be 

 useful to other workers to give a short account of the 

 district, coupled with a list of the birds definitely identified, 

 which must necessarily be very incomplete — especially as 

 regards the smaller and less conspicuous Passeres. 



Leaving Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, on September 

 24th, 1896, 1 and my companion, Mr. J. S. Budgett of Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, took steamer to Villa Concepcion, which 

 town was selected as our base. Here we spent three weeks 

 completing our preparations and awaiting the arrival of a 

 missionary friend, who was to be our guide into the interior 

 of the Chaco. At Villa Concepcion the River Paraguay is 

 divided into two channels by a low-lying, brush-covered 

 island several miles in length. Beyond the western of 

 these two channels lies typical Chaco country — open palm- 

 dotted savannah, varied by patches of dense forest. On the 



* " Ou the Avifauna of the Lower Pilcomayo," Ibis, 1892, p. 120. 



