ORDER GALLINiE. 133 



back, the upper part of the neck, and the sides of the head, 

 are of a fulvous-brown ; the feet of an obscure colour. The 

 Spanish author adds, that its voice is very powerful, articu- 

 lates its name, and is a sort of howling ; that it remains in 

 deep forests perched on trees on the banks of waters, to lie 

 in wait for the serpents which constitute its prey. 



The name of Hoactzin is given by the same writer to a 

 smaller bird, only the size of a hen, whose song is very agree- 

 able, sometimes resembling a mocking laugh, and whose 

 flesh is an article of food, though neither tender nor well 

 flavoured. 



The Spanish author again, in his history of birds of New 

 Spain, describes another bird, which he does not name, but 

 to which he attributes a very long tuft, an ash-coloured plu- 

 mage, and the magnitude of a swan. This has more analogy 

 with the first we have mentioned than with the last. 



Aublet has recognized in the figure of pi, enl. 337, ^ ^^i^d 

 of Guiana, which feeds its young with insects, and which 

 doubtless is the sasa of Sonnini, though this last becomes 

 frugivorous in the adult state ; but this, as we have 

 already seen, is a very common case with gallinaceous birds. 

 Of this bird, HofFmansegg has constituted his genus Opis- 

 thocomus, which was adopted by Illiger, and subsequently 

 by the Baron, as we have seen. 



We will give the generic characters, after the Prodromus 

 of Illiger : 



The bill is moderate, thick, conical, and compressed, and 

 naked at the base. The upper mandible is rounded at the 

 top, and a little curved at the extremity; the nostrils are 

 very wide, situated at the middle of the bill, and as far as 

 them extend some hairs, proceeding from the forehead ; the 

 cheeks are naked ; the tail is long, plane, rounded, and com- 

 posed of tenrectrices ; the feet are tetradactylous, cleft, and 



