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.).
(WHITE-HEADED GUAN.)
+Penelope pipile+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 499 (Tuc.u.man).
+Pipile c.u.manensis+, _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1870, p. 529; _Burm. P. Z. S._ 1871, p. 702 (Tuc.u.man).
_Description._--Bronzy black; whole top of the head white, with narrow black shaft-stripes; wing-coverts and breast-feathers edged with white; a large blotch on the wing white; naked cheeks and throat-caruncle blue: whole length 270 inches, wing 130, tail 110. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ South America from Venezuela to Northern Argentina.
Dr. Burmeister tells us that this Guan, which is widely extended in South America, occurs in the forests of Tuc.u.man.
368. ORTALIS CANICOLLIS, Wagl.
(h.o.a.rY-NECKED GUAN.)
+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 (Tuc.u.man). +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 220 inches, wing 98, tail 103. _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 _Yacu 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 Tuc.u.man and by Capt. Page"s expedition on the Rio Parana 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. GERANOMORPHae.
Fam. XLIII. RALLIDae, or RAILS.
The Rallidae 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 Rallidae have an extended range.
369. RALLUS MACULATUS, Bodd.
(SPOTTED RAIL.)
[Plate XIX.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: RALLUS MACULATUS.]
+Rallus maculatus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 139; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 444; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 65 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 276 (Entrerios); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 471 (Lomas de Zamora).
_Description._--Above blackish; back and wings dark olive-brown, spotted all over with white: beneath barred across with white and black; chin and crissum white; bill yellow, with a bright red spot at the base; feet pale brown: whole length 110 inches, wing 52, tail 20. _Female_ similar.