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 Guiana and the Amazon valley, 
so called in 1773 by Pennant (Gen. Birds, p. 42) “from the violent 
noise it makes,”—the Palamedea? cornuta of Linneus. First made 
known in 1648 by Maregrave 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 caruncle, more 
than three inches long, it bears on its 
forehead, the two sharp spurs with which 
each wing is armed, and its elongated toes. 
Its plumage is plain in colour, being of » 
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 Linneus as a species of Parra 
(JACANA), to which group it certainly does not belong, but 
separated therefrom by Illiger to form the genus Chauwna, and 
now known as (. chavaria, or in English very generally as the 
“Crested Screamer,”® though that name was first bestowed 
on the SEerrEMA. 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 (/bis, 1880, pp. 165, 166), its nest is a light construction of 
dry rushes, having its foundation in the water, 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 
ALAMEDEA. (After Swainson.) 
1 In some parts of England the Swit is called ‘‘ Screamer.” 
* This name was adopted from Mohring ; but why it was given is unknown. 
3 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.). 
