MNO) ANSERIFORMES CHAP. 
in exceptional cases, floating. This nest is placed in some narrow 
channel or near the side of a lagoon, and contains from four to 
six oval buffish-white eggs. The female rises silently when dis- 
turbed, nor do the parents usually attack an intruder; but wounded 
birds are dangerous to approach, and make good use of their sharp 
spurs. The voice of the young is a feeble chirp; they are often 
trained, as they grow up, to act as guardians to the poultry of their 
owners. The flesh is coarse and dark, with a duck-like flavour. 
Palamedea cornuta, the Horned Screamer, found from Guiana, 
Venezuela, and Amazonia to Ecuador and Eastern Peru, is glossy 
black with an admix- 
ture of white on the 
crown, lesser wing- 
coverts, and carpal 
edge; greyish  fore- 
neck, white abdomen, 
brownish-grey bill, and 
ashy feet. The lores 
are feathered, and a 
long, slender, yellowish- 
white horn adorns the 
forehead. The female 
is said to have buff 
on the wing -coverts. 
Chauna chavaria (der- 
biana auctt.) occurs in 
Venezuela and Colom- 
bia; it is glossy slate- 
black with greyer head 
and occipital crest, 
white cheeks and 
throat, and a little 
white on the wing. 
The naked lores are 
pink, the bill and feet apparently red. C. cristata (chavaria 
auctt.) differs in being dark grey, with a black ring round the neck 
and whitish-grey cheeks and throat. This is the largest form, and 
is bigger than a Turkey ; it ranges from South Brazil to Argentina, 
and shares with Cariama (p. 258) the name of Crested Screamer. 
Fam. II. The Sub-Order ANSERES contains the single cosmo- 
= = GEL 
Fic. 32.—Chaja. Chauna cristata. x 75. 
