(RED-FRONTED COOT.)
Fulica leucopyga, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 140; iid. P. Z. S. 1868, p. 467; iid. Ex. Orn. p. 120; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 42 (Chupat), et 1878, p. 66 (Buenos Ayres) et p. 402 (Centr. Patagonia); Withington, Ibis, 1888, p. 471 (Lomas de Zamora).
Description.—Dark cinereous; head and neck black; crissum white, with a black median patch; bill and frontal shield scarlet; tip of bill yellow; feet olivaceous: whole length 15·0 inches, wing 6·8, tail 2·0. Female similar.
Hab. Uruguay, Argentina, Chili, and Patagonia.
The want of the white margin to the outer primary and the smaller and pointed head-shield distinguish this Coot from the preceding species. From F. leucoptera it may be at once known by the absence of the white tips to the secondaries.
Durnford found the Red-fronted Coot common, and breeding in the lagoons north of Buenos Ayres. The nests of this bird and of F. leucoptera, he tells us, are much alike, but those of the present species are perhaps rather the smaller. “They are formed of reeds, and placed in clumps of the same, the bottom just above the water. The eggs vary in number from six to eight, and also differ a good deal in colour. Their ground-colour is dark greyish brown, finely mottled and streaked with rufous and darker brown, some of the spots being of a considerable size.”
[381.] FULICA LEUCOPTERA, Vieill.
(YELLOW-BILLED COOT.)
Fulica leucoptera, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 505 (Paraná); Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 140; iid. P. Z. S. 1868, p. 468; iid. Ex. Orn. pl. lx. p. 119; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 195 (Buenos Ayres); White, P. Z. S. 1883, p. 42 (Cordova); Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 277 (Carhué, Pampas); Withington, Ibis, 1888, p. 472 (Lomas de Zamora).
Description.—Dark slaty; head and neck black; crissum white, with a black median patch; bend of wing and outer margin of external primary, also the tips of some of the secondaries, white; bill yellow; head-shield rounded behind; feet olivaceous: whole length 15·0 inches, wing 7·8, tail 2·0. Female similar.