160 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
four may be sometimes soft in company. It spends 
a great deal of time on the ground, where it walks 
about under the trees rather briskly, searching for 
seeds and berries. Their song is a single uninflected 
and rather musical note, which the bird repeats at 
short intervals, especially in the evening during the 
warm season. Where the birds are abundant the 
wood, just before sunset, becomes vocal with their 
curious far-sounding notes; and as this evening 
song is heard as long as the genial weather lasts, it 
is probably not related to the sexual instinct. The 
nest is a simple platform; the eggs are two, and 
white, but more spherical in shape than those of 
most other Pigeons. 
Besides the five Pigeons I have described there 
are three more species in Argentina, confined to the 
northern part of the country. South America is 
rich in Pigeons, the species numbering sixty or 
seventy. 
BLACK RAIL 
Rallus rhytirhynchus 
Above greenish brown; beneath plumbeous; bill incurved, 
greenish, with a blood-red basal spot; feet red; length 12, wing 
5.4 inches. Female similar. 
Tuis Rail differs from the other species in its beak, 
which is very long and curved, as in the Painted 
Snipe (Rhynchza), and has three strongly contrasted 
colours—dark green, bright blue, and scarlet at the 
