SCRA YE— SCREAMER 819 



correct application since the word seems to be the same as the 

 Norsk Skrape (Icel. Scrofa), which in some form or other is the 

 ordinary Scandinavian name for a Shearwater. 



SCRAYE, from its cry, a name for a Tern. 



SCREAMER,^ a bird inhabiting Gniana and the Amazon valley, 

 so called in 1773 by Pennant (Gen. Birds, p. 42) "from the violent 

 noise it makes," — the Palamedea - cornata of Linnaeus. First made 

 known in 1648 by Marcgrave under the name of "Anhima,"it 

 was more fully described and better figured 

 by Buffon under that of Kamichi, still 

 applied to it by French writers. Of about 

 the size of a Turkey, it is remarkable for 

 the " horn " or slender carvincle, more 

 than three inches long, it bears on its 

 forehead, the two sharp spurs with which 

 each Aving is armed, and its elongated toes. 

 Its plumage is plain in colour, being of talamedea. (After Swainsou.) 

 an almost uniform greyish -black above, 



the space round the eyes and a ring round the neck being varie- 

 gated with white, and a patch of pale rufous appearing above 

 the carpal joint, while the lower parts of the body are white. 

 Closely related to this bird, known as the " Horned Screamer," 

 is another first described by Linnteus as a species of Parra 

 (Jacana), to which group it certainly does not belong, but 

 separated therefrom by Illiger to form the genus Chauna, and 

 now known as C. chavaria, or in English very generally as the 

 "Crested Screamer,"^ though that name was first bestowed 

 on the Seriema. This bird inhabits the lagoons, swamps, 

 and open level country of Paraguay and Southern Brazil, where 

 it is called " Chaja " or " Chaka," and is smaller than the pre- 

 ceding, wanting its " horn," but having its head furnished with 

 a dependent crest of feathers. Its face and throat are white, to 

 which succeeds a blackish ring, and the rest of the lower parts are 

 white, more or less clouded with cinereous. According to Mr. 

 Gibson (3is, 1880, pp. 165, 166), its nest is a light construction of 

 dry rushes, having its foundation in the Avater, and contains as 

 many as six eggs, which are white tinged with buff'. The young 

 are covered with down of a yellowish-brown colour. A most 

 singular habit possessed by this bird is that of rising in the air 

 and soaring in circles at an immense altitude, uttering at intervals 



1 In some jjarts of England the Swift is called "Screamer." 



- This name was adopted from Mohring ; but why it was given is unknown. 



^ Under this name its curious habits have been well described by Mr. W. H. 



Hudson {Gentleman's Magazine, Sept. 1885, pp. 280-287 ; Argent. Orn. ii. pp. 



119-122 ; Nat. in La Plata, chap. xvii.). 



