412 



BIRDS. - 



THE TRUMPETER (Psophia crepitanii}, also called 

 the AGAMI, another South American species, is espe- 

 cially abundant in Guiana, where it is frequently 

 domesticated and kept in the poultry yards, from a 

 notion that it protects the fowls from the assaults of 



The Crowned Demoiselle (Balearic* pavomna). 



predaceous birds. It becomes exceedingly tame, and 

 will then follow its owner about like a dog, and even 

 endeavour to drive away other domestic animals to 

 prevent their receiving any notice. The Trumpeter is 

 about the size of our common Heron. It has a short 

 convex bill, long tarsi, and a short tail. Its general 

 colour is black, with a very brilliant metallic blue 

 lustre on the upper surface. The bill is yellowish, 

 and the feet orange colour. The name of this bird 

 is derived from the peculiar loud and rough trumpet- 

 ing sound which it emits. Its flesh is said to be very 

 delicate. Two other species of Trumpeters are known ; 

 one of them (P. viridis) is of a green colour above, 

 and the other (P. leucopterd) has the wing-quills white. 



FAMILY IV. ARDEID^E. 



This family includes a much greater number and 

 variety of birds than the preceding the Herons, 

 Bitterns, Storks, Ibises, and many other forms. Of 



course, in so extensive a family the characters are 

 liable to great variation, but all the birds referred to 

 this group agree in one important point, namely, the 

 full development of the posterior toe, which is placed 

 on the same plane as the three anterior ones, and is 

 applied to the ground in walking. The legs are 

 long and slender, and naked for a considerable 

 distance above the articulation of the tarsus. 

 The latter is generally scutellated. The bill is 

 always of considerable size, and strong; in the 

 majority it is of a conical form, and often very 

 acute at the point. The wings are greatly 

 developed, and the birds are generally endowed 

 with considerable powers of flight, although they 

 are rarely very rapid in their motion through 

 the air. These birds are found in all the warmer 

 and temperate parts of the world, and many of 

 them are either very widely distributed or per- 

 form more or less extensive migrations. They 

 haunt marshy places and the margins of lakes 

 and rivers, and feed for the most part upon fishes, 

 frogs, and other aquatic animals. 



THE GRAY HERON (Ardea cinerea) Plate 24, 

 fig. 92. This fine bird, which may be taken as 

 the type of the Herons properly so-called, is a 

 native of Britain, where it is tolerably common 

 and generally distributed. It is a large species, 

 measuring fully three feet in length, and is fur- 

 nis'ned with enormous wings, which, when spread, 

 look quite disproportionate to the size of the bird. 

 The general colour of the plumage is bluish-gray 

 above, and white beneath. The back of the head 

 is adorned with a crest of long dark slate- 

 coloured feathers ; the bill is yellow, and the legs 

 greenish. 



The common or Gray Heron appears to be 

 generally distributed over the C Id World, but in 

 its most northern haunts it is migratory, only 

 visiting them in the summer. At this season 

 the bird frequents inland districts, along the 

 margins of lakes and rivers, in the neighbourhood 

 of marshy places ; but in the winter it frequently 

 resorts to the shores of the sea and the mouths 

 of rivers. Its food consists principally of fishes, 

 which it captures by standing patiently in the water 

 until they pass within its reach, when the long 

 neck is immediately darted out, and the luckless prey 

 is generally secured and swallowed. Large fish are 

 sometimes transfixed by one of the acute mandibles ; 

 and Mr. Yarrell mentions a case in which a Heron 

 drove its upper mandible through the eyes of a large 

 eel, which then, in its agony, coiled itself so tightly 

 round the neck of its captor that the bird was prevented 

 from breathing, and the pair were found dead in this 

 close but by no means loving embrace. Besides fish, 

 the Heron feeds freely upon frogs, newts, and other 

 aquatic animals, and is said even to devour small birds 

 and quadrupeds. 



At the commencement of the breeding season, the 

 Herons, which have lived in solitude through the 

 winter, become very sociable in their habits, and collect 

 together, like the rooks, in some wood or clump of 

 large trees, which is generally frequented by them for 



