142 



Description. — Adult male: forehead and sides of head avellaneous or buffy 

 brown, shading into blackish brown No. 3 on the occiput, all the feathers with 

 paler mesial streaks; back of the neck and anterior portion of interscap- 

 ular region black, the central part of each feather being occupied by large white 

 markings, linear to guttate and lanceolate in form; remainder of the inter- 

 scapulum, wing-coverts and long inner secondaries olive brown glossed with 

 greenish, margins paler; back, rump and upper tail-coverts clove brown; tail 

 clove brown with bronze gloss. Primaries and outer secondaries olive brown 

 with purplish-bronze gloss. Throat whitish, shading into hair brown on the 

 front and sides of neck; breast and abdomen olive brown, the median portion 

 with lanceolate mesial streaks of white; flanks and under tail-coverts clove 

 brown; feathered portion of tibiae olive brown with white mesial streaks on the 

 inner aspect; under wing-coverts fuscous with broad white spots basally. 



Adult female : similar to the adult male but smaller. 



Measurements. — Two males: wing 298-309 mm.; tarsus 115-118; culmen 

 102-108. Two females: wing 285-286; tarsus 101-110; eulmen 91-97. 



Range. — From northern Colombia (Cienega Grande), Vene- 

 zuela, Guianas to central (?) Brazil, exact limits unknown. 



Specimens examined. — Surinam : Paramaribo, 2 c? , 2 9 (in 

 collection T. E. Penard). 



Aramus scolopaceus carau Vieillot. 



Aramus carau Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., vol. 8, 1817, p. 300. Para- 

 guay, ex Azara. 



Rallus gigas Lichtenstein, Verz. Doubl., 1823, p. 78. Sao Paulo, Brazil, and 

 Montevideo, Uruguay. 



Rallus ardeoides Spix, 1 Avium Brasil., vol.. 2, 1825, p. 72, pi. 91. "Prope 

 pagum Contendas vel Riachao in provincia Minas Geraes." 



Subspecific characters. — Similar to A. s. scolopaceus but much larger through- 

 out and with a heavier bill. 



Measurements. — Four males: wing 335-343 mm. (340.5); tarsus 128-139 

 (133.75) ; culmen 112-131 (121.5). One, sex not determined: wing 321; tarsus 

 124; culmen 118. 



Range. — Central (?) and southeastern Brazil, Paraguay, Uru- 

 guay, eastern Argentina. 



Specimens examined. — Brazil: Rio Grande do Sul, Cacequy, 

 1-cT. Argentina: Entre Rios, Concepcion del Uruguay, 2cf; 

 Santa Fe, La Noria, lcT. Paraguay: no locality, 1. 



Aramus pictus pictus (F. A. A. Meyer). 



Tantalus pictus "Bartram", F. A. A. Meyer, Zool. Annalen, vol. 1, 1794, p. 

 287. St. John's River, Florida. 



N[umenius] vociferus Latham, Index Orn., Suppl., 1801, p. Ixv. Florida, 

 ex Bartram. 



Rallus giganieus Bonaparte, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 1, vol. 5, 1825, 

 p. 31. Florida. 



Notherodius holostictus Cabanis, Journ. f. Orn., vol. 4, 1856, p. 426. Cuba. 



Aramus scolopaceus auct. nee Gmelin. 



Aramus guarauna auct. nee Wagler. 



Description. — Superficially similar to A. s. scolopaceus but averaging larger 

 and somewhat less brilliantly glossed, but differing specifically in the presence 



1 HeUmayr (Abh. K. Bayer. Akad. Wiss., vol. 22, 1906, p. 711-712) finds 

 that a specimen in the Munich Museum supposed to be Spix's type is indis- 

 tinguishable from birds from Paraguay and Matto Grosso. 



