AVES RALLID/E. 53 



Lower parts : Generally deep lead color, a little paler in shade than the 

 back and without the olive washing of that region. The central under 

 tail coverts are deep lead color and the lateral ones pure white. 



Princeton University collection, No. 7,803, male adult. Rio Coy, Pata- 

 gonia, 25 January, 1898, J. B. Hatcher. 



The frontal shield is pointed and reaches well back on the forehead. 

 "Bill and shield primrose yellow" (Durnford) ; "base of upper mandible 

 and a small portion of the shield bright blood red ; legs olivaceous with a 

 pale red garter above the knee " (Durnford). 



"Bill yellow, with a dark red patch on the oilmen; legs olive green; 

 claws brown ; iris yellow " (Coppinger). 



Geographical Range. Patagonia and Chile, northward to Bolivia, 

 Argentina, and southern Brazil. 



The Princeton Expeditions procured a series of seven of these birds 

 which do not vary greatly from the bird no. 7803 of the collection which 

 formed a basis for the foregoing description. 



The colors of the external bare soft parts of birds of this genus and 

 allied genera are subject to very marked modification. They vary much 

 with the age of the individual, seasonal change is also very appreciable 

 and finally sex is another factor to be reckoned with. It is also well known 

 to competent field naturalists that the bills and more especially the frontal 

 shields change very rapidly in color after death and an hour or more often 

 furnishes ample time for the natural color to have been lost. Further 

 field notes made as soon as examples are shot would be of great value. 



Immature birds have a tendency to a general lighter color especially 

 on the lower surface. This in its extreme shows fine white tips to each 

 feather on the belly. 



An immature male, No. 7,967, taken at Arroyo Eke, Patagonia, 15 April, 

 1898, has a decided reddish brown intermixture of feathers in the region 

 in front of the eye. This is also apparent on the head, neck and body in 

 a varying degree. The region below the lower eyelid in this bird is 

 decidedly whitish. Nos. 7,964 <? im., 7,965 J 1 im. have similar brown 

 washing. 



Number 8315, J 1 adult, is darker throughout than the other birds com- 

 posing this series. 



