Volume Ii Part 31 (1/2)

381. FULICA LEUCOPTERA, Vieill.

(YELLOW-BILLED COOT.)

+Fulica leucoptera+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 505 (Parana); _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 (Carhue, 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-s.h.i.+eld rounded behind; feet olivaceous: whole length 150 inches, wing 78, tail 20. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, and Bolivia.

This is perhaps the most abundant species of _Fulica_ in the Plata region, and certainly congregates in the largest numbers. The colour of the beak and s.h.i.+eld is of a very delicate yellow; the legs and feet dull green; the head, neck, and part of the back velvet-black; all the rest of the plumage dark slate-colour, except the under coverts of the tail, which are white, and render the bird very conspicuous when it is swimming away with the tail raised vertically.

On the pampas, in large marshy lagoons, this Coot is sometimes seen in immense numbers; thousands of birds uniting in one flock, and spreading over the low sh.o.r.es to feed, they look like a great concourse of Rooks.

But they are exceedingly timid, and at the sight of a bird of prey or other enemy they all scuttle back to the water, tumbling over each other in their haste to reach it. They rise in a peculiar manner, rapidly striking the surface of the water with their great lobed feet, often for a distance of twenty or thirty yards before they are fully launched in the air. They are loquacious birds, and when swimming about concealed among the thick rushes are heard answering each other in a variety of curious tones, some of their loud, hollow-sounding, reiterated cries resembling peals of laughter.

The nest is a slovenly structure of rushes lying on the water, with a very slight depression for the eggs, which are ten or twelve in number.

These are long, pointed at one end, dull cream-colour, marked over the whole surface with small blackish and purple spots.

Fam. XLIV. ARAMIDae, or COURLANS.

The Courlans are a peculiar American family, intermediate between the Cranes and the Rails. Of the two known species, which are nearly allied, one occurs in the Argentine Republic.

382. ARAMUS SCOLOPACEUS (Gm.).

(SOUTHERN COURLAN.)

+Aramus scolopaceus+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 504 (Parana); _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 141; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1869, p. 160; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1876, p. 102 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 196 (Buenos Ayres); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 160 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 277 (Entrerios).

_Description._--Above brown; forehead, lores, and chin greyish white; neck striped with white: beneath similar; bill brown; legs greenish grey: whole length 240 inches, wing 130, tail 50.

_Female_ similar.

_Hab._ South America.

This curious bird has a blackish-brown plumage, glossed with bronze on the upper parts; its total length is about two feet and a half, and the wings, when spread, measure nearly four feet from tip to tip. It has been called ”an abnormal relative of the Rails at most,” and in its peculiar flight and many of its habits certainly differs very widely from the Rails.

The beak of this bird is nearly 5 inches long, straight, and of an iron hardness; the tip is slightly bent to one side, the lower mandible somewhat more than the upper. The tongue extends to the extremity of the beak; at the end it is of a h.o.r.n.y toughness, and frayed or split into filaments. This beak is a most effective instrument in opening sh.e.l.ls; for where mollusks abound the Courlan subsists exclusively on them, so that the margins of the streams which this bird frequents are strewn with innumerable sh.e.l.ls lying open and emptied of their contents.

Every sh.e.l.l has an angular piece, half an inch long, broken from the edge of one valve. Mussels and clams close their sh.e.l.ls so tightly that it would perhaps be impossible for a bird to insert his beak, however knife-like in shape and hardness, between the valves in order to force them open; therefore I believe the Courlan first feels the sh.e.l.l with his foot whilst wading, then with quick dexterity strikes his beak into it before it closes, and so conveys it to the sh.o.r.e. Otherwise it would be most difficult for the bird to lift the closed sh.e.l.l from the water and to carry it to land; but supposing it could do this, and afterwards succeed in drilling a hole through it with its beak, the hole thus made would have jagged edges and be irregular in shape. But the hole is, as I have said, angular and with a clean edge, showing that the bird had just thrust his beak half an inch or an inch between the valves, then forced them open, breaking the piece out during the process, and probably keeping the sh.e.l.l steady by pressing on it with its feet.

By day the Courlan is a dull bird, concealing itself in dense reed-beds in streams and marshes. When driven up he rises laboriously, the legs dangling down, and mounts vertically to a considerable height. He flies high, the wings curved upward and violently flapped at irregular intervals; descending, he drops suddenly to the earth, the wings motionless, pointing up, and the body swaying from side to side, so that the bird presents the appearance of a falling parachute. On smooth ground he walks faster than a man, striking out his feet in a stately manner and jerking the tail, and runs rapidly ten or twelve yards before rising. At the approach of night he becomes active, uttering long clear piercing cries many times repeated, and heard distinctly two miles away.

These cries are most melancholy, and, together with its mourning plumage and recluse habits, have won for the Courlan several pretty vernacular names. He is called the ”Lamenting Bird” and the ”Crazy Widow,” but is more familiarly known as the ”Carau.”

Near sunset the Caraus leave the reed-beds and begin to ascend the streams to visit their favourite fis.h.i.+ng-grounds. They are very active at night, retiring again at the approach of morning, and sometimes pa.s.s the day perched on trees, but more frequently concealed in dense reed-beds.

As the breeding-season draws near they become exceedingly clamorous, making the marshes resound day and night with their long wailing cries.

The nest is built among the rushes, and contains ten or twelve eggs as large as Turkey's, slightly elliptical, spa.r.s.ely marked with blotches of pale brown and purple on a dull white ground, the whole egg having a powdered or floury appearance. When the nest is approached the parent birds utter sharp angry notes as they walk about at a distance. The young and old birds live in one flock until the following spring.