ARAMIDJE. 159 



concealed among the thick rushes are heard answering each other in a 

 variety of curious tones, some of their loud, hollow-sounding, reiterated 

 cries resembling peals of laughter. 



The nest is a slovenly structure of rushes lying on the water, with a 

 very slight depression for the eggs, which are ten or twelve in number. 

 These are long, pointed at one end, dull cream-colour, marked over the 

 whole surface with small blackish and purple spots. 



Farn. XLIV. ARAMID.E, OR COURLANS. 



The Courlans are a peculiar American family, intermediate between 

 the Cranes and the Rails. Of the two known species, which are nearly 

 allied, one occurs in the Argentine Republic. 



382. ARAMUS SCOLOPACEUS (Gm.). 

 (SOUTHERN COURLAN.) 



Aramus scolopaceus, Sunn. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 504 (Parana) ; Scl. et Salv. 

 Nomencl. p. 141 ; iid. P. Z. S. 1869, p. 160 ; Hudson, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 102 

 (Buenos Ayres) ; Dumford, Ibis, 1877, p. 196 (Buenos Ayres) ; Gibson, Ibis, 

 1880, p. 160 (Buenos Ayres) ; Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 277 (Entrerios). 



Description. Above brown ; forehead, lores, and chin greyish white ; neck 

 striped with white : beneath similar ; bill brown ; legs greenish grey : whole 

 length 24*0 inches, wing 13*0, tail 5-0. Female similar. 



Hob. South America. 



This curious bird has a blackish-brown plumage, glossed with bronze 

 on the upper parts ; its total length is about two feet and a half, and 

 the wings, when spread, measure nearly four feet from tip to tip. It 

 has been called " an abnormal relative of the Rails at most/' and in its 

 peculiar flight and many of its habits certainly differs very widely from 

 the Rails. 



The beak of this bird is nearly 5 inches long, straight, and of an iron 

 hardness; the tip is slightly bent to one side, the lower mandible some- 

 what more than the upper. The tongue extends to the extremity of the 

 beak ; at the end it is of a horny toughness, and frayed or split into 

 filaments. This beak is a most effective instrument in opening shells ; 

 for where mollusks abound the Courlan subsists exclusively on them, so 

 that the margins of the streams which this bird frequents are strewn 

 with innumerable shells lying open and emptied of their contents. 

 Every shell has an angular piece, half an inch long, broken from the 



