ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



UHITK HACKED 1 lU Ml'KTKR 



mate frifiids can gossip but little about their 

 lives. Yet it is very easy to become tlieir friend 

 for they are among the tamest, most friendly 

 of birds. If an Indian brings in a half-grown 

 trumpeter or one slightly wounded, a few days 

 suffice to show him the advantages of human 

 companionship. He finds a supply of food, no 

 enemies, chickens to boss and children to fol- 

 low about, and these seem better than whatever 

 he has been used to. Although full-winged and 

 at tiie edge of the jungle, he elects to remain 

 for the rest of iiis life. Demor.ilization sets 

 in. however, for wiien a mate is found for him, 

 he merely tolerates her and she reciprocates by 

 showing desire neither for nest nor brooding. 

 So while trumpeters can be bought for a little 

 tobacco in every Indian village, yet their court- 

 ship, nesting, young and their iiabits in general 

 remain a mystery. 



We know their appearance well. — a humped 

 carriage like a guinea-hen. and standing about 

 twenty inches high. The head and neck, and 

 most of the body jjlumage are velvety black witii 

 glints of wonderful iridescence on the breast. 

 The wings are soft and not of great power, 

 and the tail is negligible. The loose, hairy featli 

 ers of tile lower part of the back form the ehiel 

 badge of species. One kind has them white. 

 another green and a third grey. 



I recently l)r()uglit green and white-b.icked 

 birds from Para, lir.izil. togetiier witii n third 

 little-known green form witii very dark legs 

 which is appropriately known .as oh.icura and is 

 found in only a tiny patch of country near the 

 Amazon's mouth. The grey bird is the most 

 common and the one I often observed in British 

 Guiana. In that country tiiey are called Warra- 

 eabras by the Indians and ;ire all tangled up 

 in tradition with terribly tierce tigers which 

 hunt in |)aeks. The ordinary note of these birds 

 is rather terrifying. It is a descending scale, 

 subdued, muffled, inarticulate, but of great car- 

 rying power and suggestive of tremendous lat- 

 ent force. One expects every moment to hear 

 the sound free itself of the muffled character 

 and break forth in a great leonine roar. 



As to habits, the trumpeters themselves would 

 be amused if they could see what is accredited 

 to them in scientific literature. They live singly 

 or in p.iirs, or perhaps in flocks of three hun- 

 dred 1 They dwell in the mountains or else in 

 the lowlands ; tliey roost on the ground or in 

 the tree-tops. Reports of their nesting habits 

 arc quite as elastic, and if they don't scratch a 

 de))ression in the ground they build high up 

 in the foliage, or else in a hollow tree. They 

 lay two eggs or seven or ten, and these are 

 cream-colored, white, asliy or green according to 

 the color-preference of the native who conveyed 

 the information to the receptive scientist. It 

 is really worth while, as a foil to the mass of 

 facts which science claims as her raison d'etre, 

 to quote one of the bravest of recent writers 

 who dares to print "nothing can be positively 

 asserted as to the habits of the trumpeters." 



Ill .-^K^ UU Ml'KrKK 



