Mr. J. J. Monteiro on Birds collected in Angola. 339 



number of males and females). Further in the interior, I was 

 credibly informed that they are found in flocks of from one to 

 two hundred individuals. 



The males raise up and open and close their tails exactly in 

 the manner of a Turkey, and filling out their bright cockscomb- 

 red, bladder-like wattle on their necks, and with wings dropping 

 on the ground, make quite a grand appearance. 



They do not present a less extraordinary appearance as they 

 walk slowly with an awkward gait, and peer from side to side 

 with their great eyes in quest of food in the short grass, poking 

 their large bills at any frog, snake, &c., that may come in their 

 way. 



Their flight is feeble, and not long-sustained. When alarmed, 

 they generally fly up to the nearest large tree, preferring such 

 as have thick branches with but little foliage, as the Adansonia, 

 "Mucuzo" (a wild fig). Here they squat close on the branches, 

 and, if further alarmed, raise themselves quite upright on their 

 legs in an attitude of listening, with wide-open bills. The first 

 to notice a person at once utters their customary cry, and all fly 

 ofi^ to the next tree. 



They are very wary, and, the grass near the mountains being 

 comparatively short, with but little scrub or bush, it is very dif- 

 ficult to approach without being observed by them from the high 

 trees. I followed a flock of six for upwards of two hours, crawl- 

 ing flat on my stomach, negro fashion, before I obtained a chance 

 of a shot, when I was so fortunate as to break the wing of a male 

 without otherwise injuring it. It was quickly captured by the 

 blacks. 



They are omnivorous in their food : reptiles, birds, eggs, 

 beetles, and all other insects, mandioca-roots, ginguba or ground- 

 nuts, constitute their food in the wild state. In confinement 

 I have fed this bird upon the same food, also upon fresh fish, 

 which it showed itself very fond of, as well as on entrails of 

 fowls, &c. On letting it loose in Loanda, in a yard where there 

 were several fowls with chickens, it immediately gulped down its 

 throat six of the latter, and finished its breakfast with several 

 eggs ! 



The note or cry of the male is like the hoarse blast of a horn. 



