Volume Ii Part 29 (1/2)

_Hab._ South America.

The Spotted Rail, which has a wide distribution in South America, occurs as far south as Buenos Ayres. Our figure is taken from an example of this species obtained by Mr. F. Withington in September 1885 in the Lomas de Zamora. Concerning its nesting-habits he sends the following note:--”It breeds amongst the reeds, and its nest is placed about 18 inches from the water. To reach it the birds collect a heap of reeds, gra.s.s, and other materials, and alongside form an inclined platform that answers the purpose of a staircase, by which the birds ascend or descend with ease. The usual clutch of eggs is seven, but I have taken fifteen from one nest, all good. These, of course, could not have been laid by one bird.”

370. RALLUS ANTARCTICUS, King.

(ANTARCTIC RAIL.)

+Rallus antarcticus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 139; _iid. P. Z.

S._ 1868, p. 445; _iid. Ex. Orn._ t. lx.x.xii. p. 163; _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 276 (Carhue); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 471 (Lomas de Zamora).

_Description._--Above brown, striped with black; wing-coverts rufous; remiges blackish: beneath plumbeous; flanks and under wing-coverts black, barred across with white: whole length 80 inches, wing 37, tail 15. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Chili, Argentine Republic, and Patagonia.

This Rail is a small southern representative of the well-known Virginian Rail of the U.S. It is stated to be ”rather common” at Carhue by Mr.

Barrows, and Mr. Withington has recently sent us specimens from the Lomas de Zamora.

371. RALLUS RHYTIRHYNCHUS, Vieill.

(BLACK RAIL.)

+Aramides rhytirhynchus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 504 (Parana).

+Rallus rythyrhynchus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 139; _iid.

P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 145 (Buenos Ayres) et p. 446; _Hudson, P. Z.

S._ 1870, p. 104 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 65 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 42 (Cordova); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 276 (Entrerios). +Rallus nigricans+, _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 193.

_Description._--Above greenish brown; beneath plumbeous; bill incurved, greenish, with a blood-red basal spot; feet red: whole length 120 inches, wing 54, tail 28. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Southern Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Argentina, Chili, and Patagonia.

This Rail differs from the other species in its beak, which is very long and curved, as in the Painted Snipe (_Rhynchaea_), and has three strongly contrasted colours--dark green, bright blue, and scarlet at the base.

The blue and red tints become very vivid in the love-season. Without being anywhere abundant, the Black Rail is found throughout the Plata Region in every place where reeds and rushes grow. In the marshes along the Plata they are met with quite as frequently in winter as in summer; this fact surprised me greatly, since I know this species to be migratory, their unmistakable 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 Plata marshes and the Atlantic sea-board, where there is abundant shelter and a higher temperature, remain all the year. On the Rio Negro of Patagonia I found the Black Rail a resident, but the winter of that district is singularly mild; moreover, the wide expanse of waterless country lying between the Rio Negro and the moist pampa region would make an annual migration from the former place difficult to such a feeble flier. Of this instinct we know at least that it is hereditary; and it becomes hard to believe that from every one of the reed-beds distributed over the vast country inhabited by this species a little contingent of migrants is drawn away annually to winter elsewhere, leaving a larger number behind. Such a difference of habit cannot exist among individuals of a species in one locality; but differences in the migratory as in other instincts, great as this, are found in _races_ inhabiting widely separated districts.

It is difficult to flush the Black Rail; it rises in a weak fluttering manner, the legs dangling down, and, after flying thirty or forty yards, drops again into the reeds. Its language is curious: when alarmed, the bird repeats, at short intervals, a note almost painful from its excessive sharpness, and utters it standing on a low branch or other elevation, but well masked by reeds and bushes, and incessantly bobbing its head, jerking its tail, and briskly turning from side to side. It has, at such times, a very interesting appearance, while the long beak, brilliant with the nuptial colouring, the bright-red eye and vermilion legs, admirably contrasting with the fine deep slate plumage, give it considerable claims to beauty. At other times it has a hollow call-note with a puzzling ventriloquism in the sound, which is sometimes repeated at short intervals for an hour. While uttering it the bird stands, as usual, on a slight eminence, but drawn up in a listless att.i.tude and without any of its nods and jerks and other frisky gestures. It has also a kind of song, which sounds not unlike the braying of a donkey; hence the vernacular name _Burrito_ (little a.s.s) by which the bird is known in the Plata. This song is heard both day and night, and is a confused performance, uttered without pause, and composed of several long shrill notes, modulated and mingled with others, hollow and booming. These notes can be heard a thousand yards away; but, far or near, they always sound remote.

372. RALLUS NIGRICANS, Vieill.

(PLUMBEOUS RAIL.)

+Aramides nigricans+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 504. +Rallus nigricans+, _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 446; _iid.

Nomencl._ p. 139.

_Description._--Above olivaceous brown; front, side of the head, and body beneath plumbeous; throat whitish; lower belly, thighs, and tail blackish; bill straight, uniform dark greenish: whole length 100 inches, wing 53, tail 28. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ South Brazil, Paraguay, and Northern Argentina.

This Rail is said by Dr. Burmeister to occur near Buenos Ayres, but the bird taken for this species by Durnford (Ibis, 1877, p. 193; 1878, p.

66) appears to have been _R. rhytirhynchus_.