Information respecting Zoological Travellers. 347 



From the head to the toes, that is to say, standing upright, it 

 measured 6^ feet, from the tip of the beak to the tail 4 feet 4 inches, 

 and to its end 4 feet 1 1 inches ; from the end of the toe to the knee- 

 joint li foot, from ditto to the thigh-joint 2 feet 10 inches. Its 

 wings when spread out measured 8^ feet ; it has therefore, next to 

 the Condor, the greatest extent of wings. Its plumage is pure 

 white ; the bill, head, and upper part of the neck are black, and with 

 the exception of a few scattered downy feathers, quite naked. The 

 lower part of the neck is red, and likewise set with a few downy 

 feathers. The skin of the neck, but particularly of the gullet, is 

 generally wrinkled, but the bird can extend it. The neck measured 

 1 foot 10 inches. A species of Ampullaria {guyanensis) is found in 

 prodigious numbers in the lakes and swamps, as well as in the ri- 

 vulets which meander through the savannahs, and it appears they 

 constitute the chief food of the Jabiru. In spite of their unshapely 

 beak, they are able to remove the operculum most admirably, and to 

 draw the mollusc out of its shell. I have found it difficult to procure 

 perfect specimens of that Ampullaria for my collections, although 

 shells partly broken or devoid of the operculum covered the low 

 savannahs extensively, while in other parts I found the opercula 

 equally numerous, but no shells. 



The Jabiru builds its nest generally on trees, sometimes on rocks. 

 It is constructed of dry branches, lined with a few feathers, in which 

 the female deposits two eggs, which are perfectly white and some- 

 what larger than a swan's e^^. The young ones are gray and not 

 roseate as has been asserted. 



When the waters subside after the annual inundations, they fre- 

 quent in small groups the sandbanks of the river Rupununy in search 

 of crustaceous animals. Nothing can surpass the gravity with which 

 they stalk along ; their measured step and upright bearing frequently 

 amused my military companion while on our first expedition in the 

 interior, who was forcibly reminded of the parade, so that he could 

 not refrain while passing the beach from giving these feathered re- 

 cruits the word of command, and they ever afterwards among our- 

 selves went by the name of his recruits. Before they rise on the 

 wing they prepare for their flight by taking two or three hops, by 

 which they are the better enabled to get on the wing. Their flight 

 is light and graceful ; and before they alight, or when rising, 

 they first wheel round the place in gyral motions, either lessening 

 or extending the circles according as it is their intention to do the 

 former or the latter. They soar uncommonly high, and might vie with 

 the eagle. Indeed they appear sometimes as a mere speck in the air. 



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