38 Mr. E. Gibson on the Ornithology of [Ibis, 



but I continue to maintain my thesis of tlieir general rarity. 

 Perhaps the most striking example is that of the Ypecaha 

 Rail {Aramides ypecaha Vieill.), that large and handsome 

 species, which Mr. Hudson refers to as " ranging as far south 

 as the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude, and abundant along 

 the marshy borders of the Plata, where it frequents the vast 

 reed-beds and forests of water-loving £/•^///^r^/^a crlstagalli" ; 

 and which he follows up with one of his characteristically 

 descriptive accounts of the bird and its curious ways. Well, 

 to judge from my experience, it would seem to be entirely 

 unknown in our locality. I have never seen or heard it, nor 

 have the natives ever mentioned it to me. 



After this digression, it will not be a matter of surprise 

 that I only record two occurrences of the present species 

 [Rallus maculatus) . On 20 December, 1898, I shot a speci- 

 men — now in the Dresden Museum. In connection with 

 this individual, of which I note the feet as " red,^' it is to 

 be observed that Sclater and Hudson's plate correctly repro- 

 duces the colour, whilst by a clerical error the letterpress 

 makes use of the expression '^pale brown.'^ The other bird 

 was brought to me on 8 November, 1913, too much mangled 

 by a dog for preservation. 



370. Rallus antarcticus King, Antarctic Rail. 



Iris reddish ; bill dark crimson, darker above ; feet 

 yellowish. 



The only entry in my diary refers to an occasion when, on 

 24 July, 1899, I observed two specimens, separately, of this 

 species. I was riding in the Rincones at the time, which, 

 that winter, were flooded by rain-water coming from the 

 interior. On the Ysla de Gonzalez in a flooded " espartillar," 

 we put up a Rail, naturally unable to adopt its usual tactics 

 of skulking away amongst the covert. Twice it flew a short 

 distance ; then, hotly pursued, dodged about on the surface 

 of the water, but without attempting to dive until disabled 

 by a lucky whip-cut. The specimen, a very fine one, now 

 reposes in the Buenos Ayres Museum. The other bird, seen 

 that day under similar circumstances, made good its escape. 



