JABIRU. 159 



Breeding-season. Angnst and September {SclwmJnirgk). 



Nest. According to Mr. C. A. Lloyd this bird nests in the Silk 

 Cotton tree and returns yearly to the same nest. 



Eggs. Undescribed from British Guiana. 



Range in British Guiana. Great Savannas (^McConnell collec- 

 tion) ; Rupununi River, Cotinga River [Brown) ; Abary River 

 {Beehe). 



Extralimital Range. The remainder o£ South America to 

 Aroentina. Central America. 



Habits. Schomburgk states (Reis. Guiana, ii. p. 133) than when 

 ■we arrived on the Takutu River we saw, on the tall trees on 

 its border, the large nests o£ the Jabirn. The number of nests 

 is very great here. I also found nests on the borders of the 

 rivers in the well-wooded oasis, also in tall trees, but never in 

 any large numbers. It sometimes builds its nest on the ledges 

 of the rocks, and always selects those ledges that cannot be 

 reached. Thus the eggs are unknown to me. They construct 

 their nests on a horizontally-forked branch, and when finished 

 the nest looks exactly like that of our Common Stork {C. alia). 

 They make use of the old nest for their next brood, which is 

 in August and September. The number of young ones is, as a 

 rule, two, sometimes three, and these do not leave the nest until 

 the following January or February. Male and female relieve 

 each other regularly in hatching the eggs, and the free one at 

 once returns when its hunger is satisfied, and scats itself close 

 to the nest to keep its mate company or defend the home against 

 monkeys and tiger-cats that continually menace the contents of 

 the nest. During the breeding-season it loses its great shyness, 

 and it sat quietly on its branch, looking down on all our doings 

 underneath the tree on which its nest is built. It loves its ooos 

 and young ones greatly, and defends them very boldly against any 

 intruder. It is a most beautiful sight to see hundreds of these 

 mighty birds suddenly startled up from the Savanna, flying in 

 all directions in disorder, until they reach a height of 100-150 ft., 

 when tliey begin to order themselves, and now with graceful ease 

 to fly upwards in spiral lines, higher and higher, until their huge 

 forms have almost disappeared from human vision and look only 

 like a mere speck floating in the deep blue fcther. If tliev anj 

 bent on a longer journey they fly in wedge-shaped form, ami 

 the foremost, after a time, is relieved by the second. In spite of 

 ihcir very cluinsily-shajied 1,'ili, they manage with a masterly ease 



