204 Mr. O. V. Aplin on the 



paja grass. They were quite tame, walking about in their 

 stately Rail-fashion, or running in a crouching attitude 

 among the hassocks for as long as I stayed — probably wishing 

 to draw my attention from the nest. One of them several 

 times snatched moi'sels of food from a blade of grass or the 

 water^s edge. A few days before I saw a pair, accompanied 

 by their young brood, swim across a little laguna from one 

 lot of water-plants to another. Although within two or 

 three yards of them the deep water and boggy ground 

 effectually separated us. The young were of the size of a 

 fowl's egg, and were covered with black down ; bill half an 

 inch long and dark-coloured. I met with a late brood of 

 good-sized young in the middle of February. The note of 

 this bird (especially during the breeding-season) is most 

 curious. It is rather explosive ; quite short, though it has 

 two distinct sounds, a grunt and a squeak. Perhaps mchic 

 or umchick would express it, and yet it seems to have only 

 one syllable. This bird also utters sometimes a loud skirling 

 note after sundown. It is known as the " Gallinita." 



112. Aramides ypecaha. Ypecaha Rail. 



A friend told me that he had seen this bu^d on the Perdido 

 during the season I was in the country, and spoke of its 

 loud cries. 



i 113. Gallinula galeata. American Waterhen. 



This bird frequented a certain range of laguuas on the 

 Monzon, well furnished with beds of water-plants, in some 

 numbers all the summer, but it was not until after the rain 

 that it spread about the other streams and cahadas. 



114. Fulica leucopyga. Red-fronted Coot. 



I did not meet with Coots until the autumn after the 

 heavy rain at the end of March had filled up the rivers. In 

 April, however, I saw a good many of this and the next 

 species. The Red-fronted Coot, with its smaller head and 

 shield, and its habits, when unalarmed, of carrying its tail 

 (with white lining) erect and of nodding its head forward 

 nearly as much as a Moorhen does, looks like that bird rather 

 than a Coot (I have watched Waterhens and both species of 



