Volume Ii Part 28 (1/2)

It spends a great deal of time on the ground, where it walks about under the trees rather briskly, searching for seeds and berries. Their song is a single uninflected and rather melodious note, which the bird repeats at short intervals, especially in the evening during the warm season. Where the birds are abundant the wood, just before sunset, becomes vocal with their curious far-sounding notes; and as this evening song is heard as long as the genial weather lasts, it is probably not related to the s.e.xual instinct. The nest is a simple platform; the eggs are two and white, but more spherical in shape than those of most other Pigeons.

Order XII. GALLINae.

Fam. XLII. CRACIDae, or CURa.s.sOWS.

Of the great Order of Gallinaceous Birds, so useful to mankind, two forms only are found in South America--the Toothed Partridges (_Odontophorinae_) and the Cura.s.sows (_Cracidae_). No member of the former group has as yet been ascertained to occur in Argentina; and of the Cura.s.sow family (one of the most characteristic types of Neotropical forest-life) only four species are with certainty known to be found within our limits out of a total of some fifty known species. But the Cracidae are essentially tree-birds, and can only be looked for in forest-countries.

365. CRAX SCLATERI, G. R. Gray.

(SCLATER'S CURa.s.sOW.)

+Crax alector+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 500. +Crax sclateri+, _Gray, List of Gallinae_, p. 14 (1867); _Scl. Trans. Zool. Soc._ ix. p. 28, pls. xliv. & xlv.; _Burm. P. Z. S._ 1871, p. 702.

_Description._--Black; lower belly and tips of tail-feathers white; lores naked; cere and bill yellow; feet flesh-colour: whole length 320 inches, wing 140, tail 140. _Female_: above black, with buffy cross bars; crest white, barred with black: beneath, throat black, breast more or less barred with black; abdomen ochraceous; tail black, with buffy-white bars and tips.

_Hab._ Paraguay and N. Argentina.

Azara described both s.e.xes of this Cura.s.sow under the name of ”El Mitu”

(Apunt. iii. p. 83), but, along with other authors, confounded it with the Crested Cura.s.sow of Guiana (_Crax alector_). In Paraguay it is said to be numerous, but in Argentina only occurs on the northern and eastern frontiers (in Tuc.u.man and Misiones), where it frequents the forests.

366. PENELOPE OBSCURA, Temm.

(DARK GUAN.)

+Penelope obscura+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 136; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1870, p. 525; _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 275 (Entrerios). +Penelope boliviana+, _Burm. P. Z. S._ 1871, p. 701 (Tuc.u.man)? +Penelope pileata+, _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 627 (Catamarca)?

_Description._--Dark bronzy green; lower back and abdomen chocolate-brown; feathers of upper back, wing-coverts, and body beneath down to the middle of the belly margined with white; feathers of front part of head edged with silvery white: whole length 250 inches, wing 115, tail 120. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Paraguay, Northern Argentina, and Bolivia.

This Guan was first made known to us as an inhabitant of Paraguay by Azara, who described it in his 'Apuntamientos'[9] under the name of ”El Yacuhu” or ”_Pavo del Monte_” (Wood-Turkey) of the Spaniards. The examination of skins of it obtained by Capt. J. T. Page, of the U.S.

Navy, during his expedition up the Rio Paraguay and Rio Vermejo, enabled Messrs. Salvin and Sclater to make this identification.

[9] Vol. iii. p. 72, no. 335.

In Entrerios, Mr. Barrows tells us, this species is limited to the borders and islands of the River Uruguay, where in heavy growths of timber it is not uncommon, though rarely seen. Here it builds a large nest in the trees and lays white eggs.

It is probable that the Guan of Tuc.u.man called by Dr. Burmeister _Penelope boliviana_ and that of Catamarca referred by White to _P.

pileata_ likewise belong to this species.

367. PIPILE c.u.mANENSIS (Jacq.).