——— oe os 
YPECAHA RAIL 163 
YPECAHA RAIL 
Aramides ypecaha 
Above olive-green; neck red; front cinereous; rump and tail 
black; beneath, throat white, breast and neck cinereous; abdomen 
rosy red, lower belly and thighs grey; flanks and crissum black ; 
under wing-coverts rufous, with black cross-bars; bill yellow, feet 
red; length 19, wing 8.5 inches, Female similar. 
YpecAHA is the Guarani name, preserved by 
Azara, of this highly interesting species; by the 
Spanish it is called Gallineta, from its supposed 
resemblance to a fowl. Without any brilliant tints, 
there is yet something so pleasing to the eye in the 
various hues of its plumage—light brown and drab 
colour, grey, buff, and black—all these colours so 
harmoniously disposed, the effect heightened by the 
long, straight yellow beak, golden-red eye, and ver- 
milion legs, that I do not know a handsomer water- 
fowl. 
These Rails are found as far south as the thirty- 
fifth parallel of latitude, and are abundant along the 
marshy borders of the Plata, frequenting the vast 
reed-beds and forests of water-loving Erythrina 
cristagalli. Where they are never persecuted they 
are bold, pugnacious birds, coming out of the reeds 
by day and attacking the domestic poultry about the 
houses and even in the streets of the villages situated 
on the borders of their marshy haunts. But when they 
are compelled to place man on the list of their enemies, 
it is a difficult matter to get a sight of one; for, like 
