G A L L I N I D 



shelter or protection. The voung are very easily 

 tamed, and they readily find" their way back to a 

 home in which they have been ted and otherwise 

 kindly treated ; but they are not fond of passing the 

 night within doors, preferring a perch on trees, if there 

 are any in the neighbourhood. 



THE PARRAQUA (Ortalida). This genus has been 

 confounded both with the former and with the true 

 pheasants ; but its characters are sufficiently distinct 

 from both. They are very noisy birds, and the name 

 parraqua is nearly expressive of their cry : with the 

 true pheasants this bird has few characters in com- 

 mon, and it is easily distinguished from the genus 

 Penelope. The culmen of the bill is more elevated 

 and curved, and the tip more enlarged and arched. 

 There are no elongated naked appendages to the 

 throat, and very little naked skin, only a narrow band 

 extending downward from each comer of the gape ; 

 the space between these stripes is covered with black 

 skin, not feathered but beset with hairs. The upper 

 parts are mottled with grey, green, and red ; the 

 front, the top of the head and the upper part of the 

 neck are deep red ; the coverts of the wings are red, 

 with the exception of six of the middle ones, which 

 are iridescent green, and the quills are of the same 

 colour, but not so brilliant. The lower part of the 

 neck and the breast are olive grey ; the bill black 

 but greyish at the tip ; a bluish circle of naked skin 

 around the eyes, and the feet reddish ; the length is 

 about twenty-two inches. The young are smaller in 

 size, and have the red spots on the upper parts more 

 conspicuous, while the under part is brownish, with 

 grey margins to the feathers. These birds construct 

 their nests on small and tufted branches, at about 

 seven or eight feet from the ground ; they lay from four 

 to six eggs. When the young are disclosed they de- 

 scend in a short time from the nest, and the mother 

 conducts them in a similar manner to the common hen. 

 The usual aliments of these birds vary very much ; 

 but when young, and having just quitted the nest, 

 their food principally consists of worms and small in- 

 sects,which the mother procures for them by scratching 

 up the earth : they quite abandon the mother when 

 they are grown large and are able to fly. Besides 

 fruits, seeds, and in all probability, insects, these birds 

 occasionally feed upon the young and tender grass, 

 with which the savannahs begin to be covered after 

 they have been watered by the rains. The feeding 

 time is early in the morning, before the hrat of the 

 sun becomes strong ; for after that they retire to the 

 shelter of the woods, and as they seek the cover of 

 the very thickest foliage, it is with difficulty that they 

 can be seen during the day ; but in the evening, when 

 it begins again to get cool, they come out of their 

 hiding-places, and utter their loud and harsh cries : 

 they feed a second time in the evening, and when light 

 fails them, they return to their perches in the trees. 

 They are found in the western valleys of the Colom- 

 bian states, as well as in the valleys of the larger 

 rivers further to the east and south. Humboldt in 

 his travels among the ridges of the Northern Andes 

 and their spurs, found them in the deep and romantic 

 valley of the Magdalena, perched in flocks of sixty or 

 eighty upon the withered trees, and making the neigh- 

 bourhood to resound with their harsh and piercing 

 cries. 



The trachea of the parraqua is more convoluted 

 than that of the crested or the marail guan : it passes 

 <jver the Jeft coracoid nearly the entire lit-iulit of the 



589 



great pectoral muscle, doubles back nearly the 

 length of this muscle along the external surface of 

 the peritoneum, and is reflected forward, divides, 

 turns backward, and proceeds to the lungs. Hum- 

 boldt measured the length of this tube both in the 

 male and the female ; and the difference is so great, 

 that were the fact not known to be otherwise, they 

 might be taken for different species. The difference 

 of the bodies of the birds is not more than an inch or 

 two in length ; but the convoluted trachea of the male 

 is nearly three times as long as the unconvoluted 

 trachea of the female ; the former measuring fifteen 

 inches and a half, and the latter only five and a half. 

 HOAZIN (Opisthocomus). This is a bird of the 

 same countries with the Alectoridce, but it unquestion- 

 ably belongs to a different family. Doubts were at 

 one time entertained as to its existence ; and now 

 that the fact of there actually being such a bird is well 

 established, its place in the system has become a little 

 puzzling. It was first described by Fernandez as a 

 Mexican bird, about the "same size as a turkey, stand- 

 ing higher than the currassow, and of a different form 

 and air : it was described as having a tufted crest 

 of feathers, white on the one side, and black on the 

 other, a curved bill, the breast yellowish white, and the 

 wings and tail marked with dark spots and stripes : the 

 back, the neck, and sides of the head of a rusty brown 

 colour, and the feet dull raven grey. The same 

 writer added, that its voice, which bears some resem- 

 blance to the sound of its name, is very powerful, and 

 resembles something between a croak and a howl : he 

 adds that it inhabits the deep forests, and perches 

 upon trees near the banks of the waters, waiting for 

 serpents, which constitute the chief part of its prey : 

 the same author mentions a smaller bird somewhat 

 similar, but feeding differently, and eatable, though by 

 no means delicious ; the other being altogether unfit 

 for this purpose. It does not appear that there is 

 much truth in any of these statements ; and it is 

 probable that Fernandez confounded together two 

 birds of very different species, the one an aquatic 

 fishing bird, and the other some such bird as the one 

 under consideration, though very imperfectly known 

 to the describer. Later writers have been induced to 

 class this genus with the omnivorous birds ; but it 

 does not appear, at least from any thing that is known, 

 that it partakes much of this character. There is, 

 however, only a shade of difference between some of 

 the omnivorous birds and some of the gallinidae ; for 

 of the former some are easily tamed, and of the latter 

 not a few are very miscellaneous in their feeding : it 

 is probable that when this bird comes to be better 

 known it mar be found to require a distinct place. 



The generic characters are, the bill short and stout, 

 convex in the culmen, curved and compressed laterally 

 towards the tip, but enlarged at the sides towards the 

 base, and with the lower mandible strong and angular 

 at the point. The nostrils are placed in the middle 

 of the surface of the bill, and partially covered above 

 with a membrane ; the feet are stout and muscular, 

 with short tarsi, and four toes, entirely divided to 

 their bases, and with the two lateral ones unequal, 

 arid all bordered with rudimental membranes : the 

 middle toe is as long as the tarsus or longer, the wings 

 are of mean length, concave and rounded, the first 

 quill being very short, the next four increasing by 

 regular stages, the sixth being longest in the wing: 

 the tuft on the head is composed of narrow feathers, 

 \\ hidi are red in the basal half, and black in the distal 



