Penelope canicollis, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii, p. 499. Ortalida canicollis, Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S. 1870, p. 534; iid. Nomencl. p. 136; Burm. P. Z. S. 1871, p. 701. Ortalis canicollis, Salvin, Ibis, 1880, p. 303 (Tucuman). Ortalida guttata, White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 627 (Salta)?
Description.—Above bronzy brown; top of head cinereous: beneath more ochraceous; throat and breast washed with bronzy; neck and breast slightly spotted with greyish; under wing-coverts, flanks, and crissum chestnut; tail bronzy green, five outer rectrices broadly tipped with chestnut; bill yellowish; feet pale hazel: whole length 22·0 inches, wing 9·8, tail 10·3. Female similar.
Hab. Paraguay and Northern Argentina.
For our first knowledge of this Guan we are also indebted to Azara, who described it in his ‘Apuntamientos’ (iii. p. 77) under the name Yacú caraguata, as found in the forests of Paraguay. Thence it extends into the wooded districts of the northern provinces of the Argentine Republic, where it was obtained by Dr. Burmeister in Tucuman and by Capt. Page’s expedition on the Rio Paraná and Rio Vermejo. It is probable also that the Guan met with by White near Salta, and referred by him to O. guttata, was really of the present species.
[Order XIV. GERANOMORPHÆ.]
[ Fam. XLIII. RALLIDÆ, or RAILS.]
The Rallidæ are well represented in the Argentine Republic, eight Rails and Crakes, two Waterhens, and three Coots being met with within its limits, and it is highly probable that the list will be further augmented as discovery advances.
The presence of three species of Coots, all apparently in abundance, is a somewhat special peculiarity of the Argentine Ornis. Most of the other Argentine Rallidæ have an extended range.