224 



The Nahiralist in La Plata. 



ornithologists have told us almost nothing about 

 its strange character and habits. 



Though dressed with Quaker-like sobriety, and 

 without the elegance of form distinguishing the 

 swan or peacock, this bird yet appeals to the aesthetic 

 feelings in man more than any species I am 

 acquainted with. Voice is one of its strong points, 

 as one might readily infer from the name : never- 



.«iri 



Crested Screamer. 



theless the name is not an appropriate one, for 

 though the bird certainly does scream, and that 

 louder than the peacock, its scream is only a power- 

 ful note of alai'm uttered occasionally, while the 

 notes uttered at intervals in the night, or in the 

 day-time, when it soars upwards like the lark of 

 some far-off imaginary epoch in the world's history 

 when all tilings, larks included, were on a gigantic 

 scale, are, properly speaking, singing notes and in 



