CRATEROPUS JARDINII. 



innermost secondaries but very little shorter than the primaries. The 4th 

 primary quill feather longest, and scarcely exceeding the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th, 

 the 3rd shorter than the 8th, and not quite so long as the shortest of the se- 

 condaries ; the 1st about half the length of the 4th. Tail broad and rounded 

 at the extremity. The feathers of the head, neck, throat, and breast, rigid : 

 those immediately in front of the eyes wiry and decomposed. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Inches. Lines, 



Length of the tarsus 1 6 



of the hinder toe 5 



of the middle toe 8 A 



Inches. Lines. 



Length from the tip of the bill to the 



extremity of the tail 10 



of the tail 5 



of the wings when folded 4 C 



of the bill from the angle of 



the mouth 1 1 



In the female the general colours are less bright, and the white spots are 

 not so pure, particularly those on the throat and breast. 



The first specimens of this bird were obtained in latitude 25° 24' S,, and, as we have reason 

 to believe, upon the extreme limit of its southern range. Where the species was first disco- 

 vered, only a very few specimens were observed ; but, by the time we had reached a degree 

 more to the northward, they occurred in great abundance. Spots covered with reeds, sucli as 

 are seen along the margins of many of the rivers of the country tliey inhabit, appeared to form 

 their favorite feeding places ; and though, when disturbed, they would leave those for a time, 

 and take up their abode among the brush-wood with which the banks of the streams were 

 more or less covered, they invariably returned to the haunts they had left when the cause 

 which led them to remove had ceased to exist. While lodged among the reeds they were 

 almost incessantly in motion ; and, from their being generally associated in great numbers, the 

 noise occasioned, partly by their flitting from one stem to another or climbing, and partly by 

 the harsh cries they uttered, more especially on the appearance of danger, rendered even a tem- 

 porary residence in the vicinity of their haunts quite disagreeable. Though they evidently pre- 

 ferred, as resorts, the situations described, yet, where reeds did not occur, they were occa- 

 sionally found among the brushwood remote from rivers ; and in these positions they also 

 displayed an extremely restless disposition ; scarcely were they observed to enter a bush or 

 thicket before they were seen leaving it from the opposite side, for an adjacent one. Though 

 such was their common practice, there were times when they appeared less disposed to hasty 

 changes, and when they were to be noticed, not simply following a tortuous course, but even 

 ascending and descending among the branches; nay, even visiting the ground below and 

 around the bushes. As far as we had opportunities of judging, they feed exclusively upon in- 

 .sects ; and those which were killed when among the reeds, seemed to have committed great 

 havoc upon the larv i' of GryUidw, Sec. while those obtained among the brushwood appeared 

 principally to have fed upon coleopterous insects. 



