Vv PSOPHIIDAE 
i) 
nr 
Ns 
with white flecks; the upper parts are glossed with bronzy- 
purple, the bill is greenish. A. scolopaceus, the Carau, Courlan, 
Lamenting Bird, or Crazy Widow, ranging from Guiana to Argen- 
tina, has only the head and neck streaked. Generally solitary 
or found in family-parties, these birds conceal themselves by day 
among reeds or damp forest-vegetation ; they rise with difficulty 
after a preliminary run, and take low, brief flights, the legs hanging 
down and the wings flapping slowly, while the latter are elevated 
for a descent. They walk quickly and in stately fashion, limping 
and jerking the tail; at night they roost on trees. The resonant, 
melancholy wail is varied by a clucking note, or by an angry cry 
when breeding. The shallows of streams or marshes are diligently 
searched for molluscs, which the formation of the beak enables the 
bird easily to open or break, but small reptiles, insects, and 
worms are also eaten. 
The flat nest of herb- 
age, placed among 
reeds, contains from 
ten to twelve white 
eggs, as large as 
those of a Turkey, 
clouded with pale 
brown and purple.t 
Fam. IV. Psophi- 
idae.—The so-called 
Trumpeters form a 
single genus of six 
species inhabiting 
tropical South 
America, and some- 
what resemble long- 
necked and long- 
legged Fowls, the 
beak being gallin- 
aceous and the tibia 
partly bare. The Fic. 52.—Trumpeter. Psophia crepitans. 
long metatarsi are 
seutellated in front ; the wings and tail are short, the ten primaries, 
x Ue 
’ For the habits, ¢f. Sclater and Hudson, Argentine Ornithology, ii. 1889, pp. 159- 
161; Gosse, Birds of Jamaica, pp. 355-363 ; Gundlach, J. f. O., 1875, pp. 353-355. 
VOL. IX Ss 
