6800 Birds. 



air. The Indians also say that the male bird breaks the egg to let 

 the chick out. 



They eat dead animals or those recently killed. The tongue is red, 

 and has a spinous process on its under part, shaped like a pen, and 

 said by the Indians to be used in making a loud whirring noise when 

 it rises from the ground. They eat very fast, and all other carnivorous 

 birds hold them in great fear. My informant aforesaid, who has 

 travelled throughout Sonora and seen them in different localities, says 

 they are most abundant in the Alta Pimeria, of which the Gadsden 

 purchase forms a portion. 



But the most singular part of the bird, and that which makes it 

 such a wonder among the Sonoranians, is that it appears to have four 

 wings, or appendages, used for assisting flight, on each side of its 

 body ; that is, a pair of wings like those of other birds, each with 

 three assistant wings or winglets joined to the main one, and folding 

 under the main ones, and next to the body. 



An ofl&cer of the Revenue Service assured me, on two occasions, 

 that he had seen this bird at Guaymas in Sonora, in 1854, in 

 possession of Capt. Spence, Captain of the Port, that they were so 

 scarce as to sell for fifty dollars a piece, and that, according to his 

 recollection, my Sonoranian informant was in the main correct in his 

 description of it. This latter informant was well known to me ; he 

 lived several years around Monterey, and left for Sonora in the latter 

 part of 1857; his description was taken down by myself, at Monterey, 

 in November and December, 1855, and, being confirmed by the officer 

 before mentioned, who is an old acquaintance of mine, it seems to me 

 there can be no doubt that the bird is a rara avis unknown to 

 naturalists. 



A gentleman now living in Monterey, who is, like the writer, an 

 amateur naturalist, assures me also that, in a voyage he made to 

 Guaymas and the California- Gulf ports in the summer of 1854, he 

 saw a bird of this kind in Guaymas, most likely the same one, in the 

 possession of Captain Spence or some other foreigner there, but that 

 it afterwards died, and, from its extreme rarity and beauty, was con- 

 sidered a great loss, as it was brought from far in the interior. 



According to this informant, who read, a few days ago, the notes I 

 had taken down in 1855, he can only remember the size, colour of the 

 cheeks, and the singularity of the wings. The size is the same as I 

 have stated, but the colour of the cheeks (which he thinks are 

 feathered) was yellow. The number of the winglets was three on 

 each side of the bird, and not four, as stated in my memoranda. 



