CANDLEBERRY MYRTLE CANDOLLE A. 



687 



toniia, we may naturally conclude that the bird is not> 

 a fisher, at least so much as the herons are, and that. 

 it lives upon food which requires more powerful 

 action in the bill to prepare it for the stomach. 

 Hence it is probable that Crustacea, and the smaller 

 reptiles, with shelly or scaly coverings, which fre- 

 quent the margins of the waters, constitute the food 

 of this bird. 



The other characters are, the nostrils near the 

 base of the bill, but the nasal groves continued so 

 near the point, the feet, which have the tarsi reticu- 

 lated, have four very long toe?, three in front and one 

 behind, which arc divided, and almost free of mem- 

 brane to their bases ; and the wings are loose and 

 concave, and less adapted for long flight than for 

 ascending and descending. The h'rst quill is much 

 shorter than the second, the third is a little longer, 

 and the fourth and fifth are the longest in the wing, 

 which gives it a rounder form when extended. The 

 hinder toe is turned rather inwards, so that the whole 

 foot presents a broad base to the soft surfaces on 

 which the animal alights. 



The boatbill inhabits those plains on the banks of 

 the Orinoco, and othor rivers in similar parts of 

 South America which are subject to flooding in the 

 rainy season ; and when these are tinder water, it is 

 usually found sitting on the stumps of decayed trees, 

 on the margin, or in the middle of the deluge, from 

 which it is ever and anon dashing into the water, and 

 catching such swimming substances as serve it for 

 food ; but as its feet have no webs, it does not alight 

 on the surface, neither does it plunge into the water 

 like the darter, and other birds which fish on the 

 wing. Its food is taken either in the shallows or on 

 the surface, and it darts upon its prey with great 

 rapidity, or dashes along the surface, scooping the 

 water with its large bill, in order to drive at the 

 smaller animals upon which it preys. When in a 

 state of repose, it has the same gloomy air as the 

 herons, but, like them, it has a very keen eye, and, 

 when once excited, the motion of its head and bill 

 are very rapid and very powerful. Its head, as in 

 many of the herons, and partially in all of them, 

 is furnished with a crest of long feathers, which are 

 pendent when the bird is in a state of repose, but 

 which it erects when excited. There is no doubt 

 that these feathers assist in guiding the motion of the 

 bill, as they are found more or less in all birds which 

 obtain their food by striking out with that instrument 

 in the water or on its surface. 



When the plains are dry and burnt up, and for a 

 considerable part of the year they are so much so 

 that no bird can find food upon them, the boatbill 

 resorts to the margins of the streams, where it sits 

 watching upon the withered stumps, till something- 

 appears to tempt its eye, upon which it dashes 

 down to the surface, glides along a little way, 

 scooping the water with its bill, and then returns 

 to its perch. From this habit of dashing down on 

 the water, it is probable that the bird catches fishes, 

 or at least the small fry, but its habits have not been 

 very minutely observed, and it is a bird of the wilds, 

 rather than in the neighbourhood of inhabited places. 

 It does not nestle in trees like the heron, but in the 

 tangled bushes on the banks of the rivers. Its nest 

 is carefully made, consisting first of a considerable 

 number of small twigs, then of leaves and vegetable 

 fibres, and lastly with an internal lining of down and 

 feathers. The eggs are of a greenish-grey colour, 

 and do not exceed two, or at most three in one 



hatch. The time of breeding, and the moults and 

 other changes of plumage, are but imperfectly known. 

 There is but one species, Cancroma cochlearia. 

 The upper parts are dull greyish ; the forehead 

 white ; the top of the head black ; and the nape fur- 

 nished with a long flowing crest.. The belly and 

 flanks are rust-coloured ; the breast white ; the upper 

 mandible blackish, the lower one whitish ; and the 

 feet greenish-yellow. The length is about one foot 

 five ; and the wings, though broad, are rather short 

 in proportion to the size of the bird. These are the 

 characters of the male. The female has the upper 

 part more inclining to blue, with scapulars, and the 

 crest black. The forehead and chin yellowish ; the 

 neck and breast white ; the rest of the under part 

 mottled with white and rust-colour ; the bill reddish, 

 and the feet brown. In the immature male the 

 colours are considerably different. AH the upper 

 part is reddish ash ; the forehead is pure white ; the 

 crown of the head black ; and the crest, which is 

 very long, is of the same colour. The lesser coverts 

 of the wings are bluish ; the cheeks greenish ; the 

 chin brown ; all the under parts, including the under 

 tail-covert, whitish ; the flanks reddish, the feet 



Cancroma cochlearia. 



brown, and the bill blackish-brown. Some notion 

 of the general form of the bird may be obtained from 

 the above figure. 



CANDLEBERRY MYRTLE. Is the Myrica 

 cerifcra of Linnasus. There are thirteen species of 

 this amentaceous genus, inhabitants of different parts 

 of the world. One is the sweet gale of Britain, and 

 the wax-bearing one of North America is made a 

 useful plant, by yielding an inflammable substance 

 which serves for making candles. Hence the trivial 

 name. 



CANDOLLEA (Labillardiere). Is the name 

 plant of the celebrated Professor De Candolle of 

 Geneva. It belongs to the Linnsean class and order 

 Polyadelphia Polyandria, and natural order DillcniactB. 

 Generic charactei : calyx of five sepals which are 

 unequally persisting ; corolla of five petals, stamens 

 in five brotherhoods ; anthers linear oblong ; styles 

 five ; capsules five, each having too seeds, bursting 

 inwards ; seeds membranous, and inversely egg-- 

 shaped. This is a New Holland genus, being dis- 

 covered there by the French traveller Labillardiere. 



