588 New Publications. 



ingredients, as a steak, so strikingly resembles beef, that one unac- 

 quainted with the fact would pronounce it such. One was winged in 

 shooting at a flock, and was brought alive to us. The bill measured 

 13 inches ; it was laterally compressed, thick at its base, and ended 

 rather sharply. The upper mandible was straight and triangular, the 

 lower rather thicker and slightly turned up. The nostrils are narrow, 

 as the bird seeks its food in the water ; the feet with three anterior toes 

 slightly united by a membrane j the hallux, or hind toe, high up on the 

 tarsus. 



From the head to the toes, that is to say, standing upright, it 

 measured 6| feet, from the tip of the beak to the tail 4 feet 4 inches, 

 and to its end 4 feet 11 inches; from the end of the toe to the knee- 

 joint li foot, from ditto to the thigh-joint 2 feet 10 inches. Its wings 

 when spread out measured 8| feet ; it has therefore, next to the Con- 

 dor, the greatest extent of wings. Its plumage is pure white ; the 

 bill, head, and upper part of the neck are black, and with the excep- 

 tion of a few scattered downy feathers, quite naked. The lower part 

 of the neck is red, and likewise set with a few downy feathers. The 

 skin of the neck, but particularly of the gullet, is generally wrinkled, 

 but the bird can extend it. The neck measured 1 foot 10 inches. A 

 species of dmpullaria (guyanensis) is found in prodigious numbers in 

 the lakes and swamps, as well as in the rivulets which meander through 

 the savannahs, and it appears they constitute the chief food of the 

 Jabiru. In spite of their unshapely beak, they are able to remove the 

 operculum most admirably, and to draw the mollusc out of its shell. 

 I have found it difficult to procure perfect specimens of that Ampullaria 

 for my collections, although shells partly broken or devoid of the 

 operculum covered the low savannahs extensively, while in other parts 

 I found the opercula equally numerous, but no shells. 



The Jabiru builds its nest generally on trees, sometimes on rocks. 

 It is constructed of dry branches, lined with a few feathers, in which 

 the female deposits two eggs, which are perfectly white and some- 

 what larger than a swan's egg. The young ones are gray and not 

 roseate as has been asserted. 



When the waters subside after the annual inundations, they frequent 

 in small groups the sand banks of the river Rupununy in search of 

 crustaceous animals. Nothing can surpass the gravity with which they 

 stalk along ; their measured step and upright bearing frequently amu- 

 sed my military companion while on our first expedition in the interior, 

 who was forcibly reminded of the parade, so that he could not refrain 

 while passing the beach from giving these feathered recruits the word 



