. 145 



under the trees rather briskly, searching for seeds and berries. Their 

 song is a single uninflected and rather melodious note, which the bird 

 repeats at short intervals, especially in the evening during the warm 

 season. Where the birds are abundant the wood, just before sunset, 

 becomes vocal with their curious far-sounding notes ; and as this evening 

 song is heard as long as the genial weather lasts, it is probably not 

 related to the sexual instinct. The nest is a simple platform; the eggs 

 are two and white, but more spherical in shape than those of most other 

 Pigeons. 



Order XII. GALLING. 



Fam. XLIL CRACIDJE, OR CURASSOWS. 



Of the great Order of Gallinaceous Birds, so useful to mankind, two 

 forms only are found in South America the Toothed Partridges 

 (Odontophorina) and the Curassows (Cracida). No member of the 

 former group has as yet been ascertained to occur in Argentina ; and 

 of the Curassow family (one of the most characteristic types of Neo- 

 tropical forest-life) only four species are with certainty known to be 

 found within our limits out of a total of some fifty known species. But 

 the Cracidae are essentially tree-birds, and can only be looked for in 

 forest-countries. 



365. CRAX SCLATERI, G. R. Gray. 

 (SCLATEE/S CURASSOW.) 



Crax alector, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 500. Crax sclateri, Gray, List of 

 Gallincp., p. 14 (1867); Scl. Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. p. 28, pis. xliv. & xlv. ; 

 Burm. P. Z. S. 1871, p. 702. 



Description. Black ; lower belly and tips of tail-feathers white ; lores naked ; 

 cere and bill yellow ; feet flesh-colour : whole length 32-0 inches, wing 14-0, 

 tail 14-0. Female : above black, with buify cross bars ; crest white, barred with 

 black : beneath, throat black, breast more or less barred with black ; abdomen 

 ochraceous; tail black, with buffy- white bars and tips. 



Hob. Paraguay and N. Argentina. 



Azara described both sexes of this Curassow under the name of " El 

 Mitu" (Apunt. iii. p. 83), but, along with other authors, confounded 



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