104 MR. "W. H. HUDSON ON THE HABITS OF RAILS. [Jan. 18, 



materials, usually on the floating weeds ; the eggs are four, in shape 

 like Snipes' eggs, and have deep-brown spots on a pale yellowish- 

 brown ground. During incubation the male keeps guard at some 

 distance from the nest, and utters a warning cry at the approach of 

 an intruder ; the female instantly flies from the nest, but in rising 

 renders herself very conspicuous. When the nest is approached the 

 parent birds hover about, occasionally fluttering as if wounded, all 

 the time keejiing up a clamour of hurried angry notes somewhat re- 

 sembling the barking cries of the Black-collared Stilt. 



The Jacana has always appeared to me strictly diurnal in its habits. 



Some of our Rails and Rail-like birds I will pass over, either be- 

 cause I have not learnt their habits or have failed to discover any 

 thing interesting in them not known already, as in the case of our 

 two species of Fulica. 



I will mention, in passing, that the Bartram's Sandpiper {Actiturus 

 bartranmis), judging purely from its habits, is a near relation of the 

 Rails. This species, I believe, h.as not had a place assigned it in the 

 Argentine avifauna— a strange oversight ; for it is one of our com- 

 monest birds. 



I will now give a brief account of Rallus rhytirhynchus, of Por- 

 sana erythrops, and of that king of Rails the Aramides ipecaha. 



The Black Rail {Rallus rhytirhynchus) abounds everywhere in the 

 La-Plata region where reeds and rushes grow. They are always 

 apparently as abundant in winter as in summer ; this fact has sur- 

 prised me greatly, since I know this species to be migratory, their 

 unmistakeable cries being heard overhead every night in spring and 

 autumn, when they are performing their distant journeys. Probably 

 all the birds frequenting the inland marshes on the south-western 

 pampas migrate north in winter ; and all those inhabiting the shores 

 of the La Plata and the Atlantic sea-board, where there is abundant 

 shelter and a higher temperature, remain all the year. On the Rio 

 Negro of Patagonia the Black Rails are resident ; but the winter of 

 that region is mild ; moreover the wide expanse of barren waterless 

 country lying between the Rio Negro and the moist pampas region 

 would make migration from the former place impossible to such a 

 feeble flyer. Of this instinct we know at least that it is hereditary ; 

 and it is hard to believe that from every one of the reed-beds distri- 

 buted over the vast country inhabited by the Black Rail a little 

 contingent of migrants is drawn away annually to winter elsewhere, 

 leaving a larger number behind. Such a diff"erence of habits cannot 

 possibly exist amongst individuals of a species in one locality ; but 

 differences, in the migratory as in other instincts, great as the one I 

 have mentioned, are found in ?'«ces inhabiting widely separated regions. 



It is difficult to flush the Black Rails ; they rise in a weak flutter- 

 ing manner, the legs dangling down, and after flying forty or fifty 

 yards drop again into the reeds. Their language is interesting. When 

 alarmed the bird repeats, at short intervals, a note almost painful 

 from its excessive sharpness ; it utters it standing on a low branch 

 or other elevation, but well masked by reeds and bushes, and in- 

 cessantly bobbing its head, jerking its tail, and briskly turning 



