ELEVEN WEEKS IN NORTH-EASTERN BRAZIL. 275 



his landing in Recife, as ever)'- day several of these birds may be seen 

 flying heavily about in the outskirts of the town, or even over waste 

 places in it, on the look out for offal of any kind. Before Recife boasted 

 of a drainage company (a benefit it now possesses) the Urubus are said 

 to have been much more numerous than they now are, and, indeed, they 

 were then the main agents for sanitary purposes. Even now they are 

 useful in this way, to some extent, as scavengers, and a considerable 

 fine is imposed for shooting one. The white patch on the remiges is 

 very conspicuous on the bird when flying, and diminishes somewhat the 

 monotony of its appearance. Outside the large towns this Urubu is Ibis, 1881, 

 replaced, apparently, by Gathartes aura. P- 355 - 



96. ARDEA CAKDIDISSIMA. 



When on the Parahyba river, between the bar at its mouth and the 

 anchorage below the town, I saw great numbers of this beautiful white 

 Egret, either flying slowly up stream in twos and threes, high in the air, 

 or wading about on the mud- flats left bare by the tide in search of 

 food. 



97. BUTOEIDES CYANURUS. 



This small Bittern was very common in marshy ground round Recife, 

 and a pair or two frequented the reed-beds at the bottom of the garden 

 at Estancia. These had a nest in the mangrove-bushes near the stream. 

 The nest was a loose platform of sticks, a couple of feet or so, I was 

 told, above the ground. 



The native name is " Socoa." 



98. SARCIDIORNIS CARTJNCULATA. 



Of the South-American Black-backed Goose I found a fine living pair 

 in the garden at Estancia, and their owner was kind enough to send 

 them to London for the Zoological Gardens, where they now are. These 

 birds had been brought down some months before from the Sertoes of 

 the interior by a " matuto " for sale in Recife. 



According to Mr. Sclater (P. Z. S. 1876, p. 695), in the American 

 Sarcidiornis " the sexes are nearly equal in size, the female bears a cornb 

 on the head as well as the male, and the flanks are conspicuously black." 

 These remarks were based upon the examination of three specimens then 

 living in the Zoological Gardens, supposed to be " an adult male and an 

 adult and younger female," and to have been imported from Maranham. 

 The pair of birds I brought back, however, do not agree with the above- 

 quoted description, inasmuch as the female bird is much smaller than 

 the male and has no wattle at all on the head, in those respects agreeing 

 with the hen of the Indian species (S. melanonota). Of the three birds 

 mentioned by Mr. Sclater, two have since died, and on dissection turned 



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