TR UMPE TERS — SCREAMERS — MUSK-D UCK— TIN AM US 40 5 



mally long legs ; the beak being short, stout, and slightly bent down at the tip. In 

 the oval shape of the nostrils they resemble seriemas, from which they differ by 

 the absence of notches in the lower border of the breast-bone. Trumpeters are poor 

 flyers, and congregate in immense troops, which utter their trumpet-like cries in 

 chorus. To produce this volume of sound, the windpipe is of unusual length, extend- 

 ing backwards beneath the skin of the abdomen. The cry, which is uttered with the 

 beak wide open, lasts about one minute. There can be no reasonable doubt that 

 trumpeters, like screamers, form part of the indigenous fauna of South America, 

 dating from the period when that continent was isolated from North America. 



The three species of so-called screamers, forming the family 

 Palamedeidce, are the sole representatives of an ordinal group related 

 to the water-birds and flamingoes, although differing from both, as well as from all 

 other birds, by the absence of the narrow projection arising from the middle of the 

 hind border of each rib to overlie the one next in the series. The typical or horned 

 screamer (Palamedea cornuta) of Guiana and Amazonia is a somewhat turkey -like 

 bird, easily recognised by the slender horn-like projection arising from the crown 

 of the head and curving forwards over the short and stout beak, the puffy neck, and 

 the two powerful spurs with which each wing is armed. These last at once proclaim 

 the screamer to be a fighter. In habits these birds are mainly terrestrial ; but at 

 least one of the other two members of the group, namely, the chaja, or crested 

 screamer (Chauna, chavaria) of Argentina, has much the habits of a goose, to 

 which it also approximates in size. The third member of the group is the Derbian 

 screamer (C. derbiana) of Colombia, which agrees with the last in the absence of 

 a " horn " on the forehead. 



• One remarkable South American duck, the only representative 

 Musk-Duck. . .... 



of its genus, is distinguished by the presence of bare tracts round the 



eyes and at the sides of the neck, and of warts at the base of its beak ; from the 



musk-like smell of a fat secreted bv this bird it takes its name of musk-duck 



(Hyonetta moschqta). Besides South America the musk-duck inhabits Central 



America, where it lives chiefly in swamps among the forests, being less fond of 



water than other ducks, and finding its food on the ground like geese. It often 



perches on trees and always nests in branches. A domesticated breed is known 



by the name of Turkish duck. 



Another very remarkable group of birds known only from the 

 Tinamus. * . 



South American region are the tinamus. In structure they con- 

 nect the game-birds very closely with the ostrich group, with which they are 

 sometimes classed. In shape they are very like partridges, and have short wings 

 and tail. Living chiefly on the pampas and campos, they fly heavily, but run 

 quickly. One of the largest is the solitary tinamu (Tinamus solitarius) of Brazil, 

 which is of the approximate size of a guinea-fowl, and belongs to a genus with ten 

 other species, ranging, collectively, from southern Mexico to Amazonia and the 

 south of Brazil. The genus is one of seven in which the first toe is well developed. 

 To the same section belong the genera Nothocercus and Crypturus, the former con- 

 taining five species, with a range extending from Central America to Colombia, 

 Venezuela, Ecuador, and possibly Chile, and Crypturus with over thirty species, 

 of which the collective distributional area reaches from northern Mexico to north- 



