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Sydney Porter Notes from South America



They are considerably larger than Turkeys and possess very stout,

long legs, which look as though they were meant to support a bird twice

the weight. Possessing huge wings, they have great powers of flight.

Hudson the famous naturalist, who spent his early days in the Argentine,

speaking about these birds, says, “ The Screamer is a very heavy bird

and rises from the ground laboriously, the wings, as in the case of the

Swan, making a loud noise. Nevertheless it loves soaring and will rise

in an immense spiral until it wholly disappears from sight in the zenith,

even in the brightest weather ; and considering its great bulk and dark

colour, the height it attains must be very great. On sunny, windless

days, especially in winter and spring, they often spend hours at a time

in these sublime aerial exercises, slowly floating round and round in

vast circles and singing at intervals. How so heavy and comparatively

short-winged a bird can sustain itself for such long periods in the thin

upper air to which it rises has not yet been explained.”


The Screamers have fairly large hooked beaks but feed on grass and

other plants, especially clover which they crop like a Goose. Each wing

is armed with two very large spurs with which they can easily rip up

a dog or cat, and I should imagine the bird would prove dangerous to

humans in the breeding season. When the birds are approached they

will emit a hissing sound and slowly raise each wing in a threatening

attitude. I think they breed in the gardens, for I saw several birds in

the downy stage, looking very much like young Cranes. I secured five

of these birds to bring home but met with an awful tragedy at Rosario

which I will relate farther on in this chapter.


There were many species of Ducks in the Gardens, but strange to say,

in spite of the abundance of water, the majority were kept in small

and overcrowded pens and aviaries. The rarest of all, the Magellan

Steamer Ducks, were kept in a small overcrowded aviary containing

various Geese, Ibis, and other w'ater fowl, although the receptacle for

water was only large enough for a couple of Mandarin Ducks. Yet in

the gardens there seemed to be acres of water with no birds on at all.

Steamer Ducks were the most aquatic of them all and need the most

water and, given proper conditions, they would doubtless have bred.

These large Ducks are mainly marine and live around the coast of

Tierra-del-Fuego in the extreme south of the continent, also in the



