Ss 
CRESTED SCREAMER 133 
in the thin upper air to which it rises has not yet 
been explained. 
The voice is very powerful. When disturbed, or 
when the nest is approached, both birds utter at 
intervals a loud alarm-cry, resembling in sound the 
anger-cry of the Peacock, but twice as loud, At other 
times its voice is exercised in a kind of singing per- 
formance, in which male and female join, and which 
produces the effect of harmony. The male begins, 
the female takes up her part, and then with mar- 
vellous strength and spirit they pour forth a torrent 
of strangely-contrasted sounds—some bassoon-like 
in their depth and volume, some like drum-beats, 
and others long, clear, and ringing. It is the loudest 
animal-sound of the pampas, and its jubilant, martial 
character strongly affects the mind in that silent, 
melancholy wilderness. 
The Screamers sing all the year round, at all hours, 
both on the ground and when soaring; when in 
pairs the two birds invariably sing together, and 
when in flocks they sing in concert. At night they 
are heard about nine o’clock in the evening, and again 
just before dawn. It is not unusual, however, to 
hear them singing at other hours. 
The nest is a large fabric placed among the low 
rushes and water-lilies, and is sometimes seen float- 
ing on the water, away from its moorings. The eggs 
are five, pointed at one end, pure white, and in size 
like the eggs of the domestic Goose. The young are 
clothed in yellow down like goslings, and follow the 
parents about from the date of hatching. 
