r)4 BIRDS OF BRITISH GIIANA. 



know anytliing of its nestino-Labits. The ' Warraus ' call it 

 -V(//( and the ' Macusis ' Zezira." 



We quote the following notes from Mr. J. J. Quelch (Timehi'i 

 (2) ii. p. 363) : — '' It was somewhat of a surprise to me to find 

 the Canje Pheasant or Hoatzin {Opisthocoimis cristatus), locally 

 called ' Hanna,' along the creek, and apparently as plentiful here 

 as they are in the Berbice River and the Canje Ch-eek. The 

 explanation of their presence is most likely to be found in the fact 

 of there being a water communication between the Abary and the 

 Berbice at some distance up, along which the birds have spread 

 almost throughout the whole course of the Abary." 



(Timehri (2) iv. p. 313) : — "This is the curious reptilian bird 

 the Hoatzin, locally called Anna, Hanna, and Stinking or Canje 

 Pheasant. Here and in corres[)onding parts of the Canje Creek, 

 which opens into the river below the town, and of the Abary Creek, 

 which communicates with the Berbice by an etaboo, these curious 

 birds may be seen at all times of the year, jumping about and 

 feeding on the fruit and foliage of the mucco-muco, conrida, and 

 bundoorie pimpler, in the morning and evening, and resting in 

 groups among the denser foliage, sitting on the posterior margin 

 of their ccn^ina sterni during the heat of the day. Here, on the 

 s|)reading bundoori pimpler, the various stages of their life- 

 histor}' may be studied — from the eggs, lying two or three to- 

 gether on the loosely placed twigs of their conspicuously built 

 nest, through the young chicks climbing about among the 

 branches by means of bill, feet and clawed wings, to the adult 

 birds which in api)earance are not unlike the common type of 

 the i)heasant, or, in terms of a colonial bird, a golden-tinted 

 brown maroodie. 



" As to the distribution of the birds alono- the river, thev 

 certainly are confined to this lower portion — not a single specimen 

 being met with along the higher reaches." 



(Timehri (2) x. p. 259) :— " The Hoatzin or Reptilian bird 

 ( Ojj'stlicromus cristatus), which, being most strictly j^hytophagous, 

 finds in the leaves or fruit of two or three plants, according to 

 the season, the whole means of subsistence required. Weakness of 

 flight prevents the birds from wandering far from their usual 

 haunts, nor have they any incentive to do so when their food 

 conditions are permanent and secure.'"' 



Mr. C. Burrington Brown (Canoe and Camp Life. ]i, 210) 



