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 



