236 LECTURE VI. 



Tlie genus Psophia has a shortish, pointed bill, 

 long legs, and feet of the usual , structure. The 

 principal species is called the Golden-breasted 

 Trumpeter, and is a rather large and tall bird, of 

 the size of a domestic fowl, with a long neck, 

 and of a grey colour above, black beneath ; the 

 breast of a changeable golden-green with a 

 blackish cast. This bird is also tamed by the 

 South Americans, and made use of as a guard to 

 their poultry in the same manner as the Parra 

 Chavaria before described, but seems to be some- 

 what inferior to that bird in its character and qua- 

 lities. The Trumpeter is by some ornithologists 

 rather referred to the Linncean order Gallinse than 

 that of the Graham. Indeed it seems to partake of 

 the nature of both these orders. 



The genus Platalea or Spoonbill is too remark- 

 able to be passed over in silence. Its character is a 

 long flattened bill, dilated at the tip into a broad 

 and slightly rounded expanse. The common or 

 European Spoonbill, which was once a native of 

 our own island, but which has long since ceased 

 to appear among us except as a mere accidental 

 straggler, is about the size of a Stork, and of a 

 white colour, with the bill and legs blackish or 



