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at its upper termination. The bend o f the wing and a rather broad margin o f the outer web
o f the outer primary are white. The legs and feet are yellowish-olive, and the lower naked portion
o f the tibia and the front o f the tarsus are described as coral-red in the living bird, but this
colour fades away very much in the dried skin.
Azara, the original discoverer o f this species, describes it in his we ll known work on the
birds o f Paraguay as the “ Focha de ligas roxas,” from the red markings on the legs. Azara
met with it in the neighbourhood o f Buenos Ayres. Professor Burmeister tells us that it is
generally distnbuted over the lagoons o f the Argentine liepuhllc, and that he obtained
specimens near Mendoza and again near Parana. In Southern Brazil the same author, as quoted
b y Hartlaub, giv es the province o f Sta. Catherina as a locality for this species, but It does not
seem to occur much further north—not being mentioned by Prince Max and other authorities
upon Brazilian Ornithology.
In Chili Fúlica armillata appears to be the commonest o f the three species, which, according
to H e iT Landbeck, are so widely distributed and so numerous iu the fresh waters o f that
country. Herr Landbeck has given us an excellent description o f the bird, and many details
as to its habits and history, hut has unfortunately misidentified it with Gay’s Fúlica chilensis,
which w e have already shewn is the same as Tschudi’s F. ardesiaca. In Southern Chili, Herr
Landbeck informs us, this species and F. leucoptera are migratoiy, or at any rate leave the lakes
in the winter, and keep more about the river-banks. In Northern Chili, however, this is not the
case, the lakes there not being swollen by a rainy season.
We have examined the specimen in the British Museum upon which 5lr. George Gray
founded his 5IS. n am e -F ./ ’ontoto, and believe It to be merely an individual o f the pi-esent
species with the head-shield extraordinarily developed, as shewn in our figure. We also think it
probable that Fúlica gallinuloides o f King is referable to this same species, o f which there are
Patagonian specimens (obtained by D’Orbigny) in the Paris Museum.
Our figure o f this Coot, which is reduced to h a lf the size o f nature, is taken from a Chilian
specimen collected by the late Mr. Bridges in August, 1862, now in the Derby Museum,
Liverpool. Wc have to record our great obligations to Mr. T. Moore and the authorities of
that Institution for the loan o f this and other examples o f the same group o f birds.
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