Sydney Porter—Notes from South America



295



be mainly terrestrial, but they always used to perch at night, though

in the day-time, if not on the ground, they perched on the

lowest branches.


In appearance they were extremely un-Cuckoo like, being exceedingly

long and thin, and I think they could have passed with ease through a

napkin ring. Of a light fawny brown, they are heavily striped

on the upper parts with dark brown and black. With their long loose

and upstanding crests and peculiar white iris of the eyes, they had a

strange wild and un-bird-like look.


Unfortunately they appear to be delicate and very sensitive to cold

and during one winter, when I was ill, the heating was allowed to go

off in the bird room, consequently I lost all three of these charming

birds. They fed mainly on soft food with a liberal supply of raw meat

and mealworms.


When I first had them, they would only feed from the hand, so

I suppose that they must have been hand-reared. They were one of the

few birds I have kept which did not mind being handled and they might

have been for all the world some strange mechanical toys. If one picked

them up by the back they would keep quite still until they were put

down again when they would make a short almost automatic run and

then stand still again waiting to be picked up. Their cry w'as certainly

like that make by an automaton and was something like the sound made

by a very loud rattle. I was very sorry to lose them, for I have never

again had such delightful pets.


The eggs of this bird are certainly the most remarkable in the

world. They are large for the size of the bird, being about the size of a

Wood Pigeon’s. Hudson says, “ They are elliptical in form and beautiful

beyond comparison, being of an exquisite turquoise blue, the whole

shell roughly spattered with white. The white spots are composed of a

soft calcareous substance, apparently deposited on the surface of the

shell after its complete formation: they are raised, and look like snow¬

flakes, and when the egg is freshly laid may be easily washed off with

cold water, and are so extremely delicate that their purity is lost on the

eggs being taken into the hand.”


Closely allied to this bird is the Ani, another strange bird whose

general demeanour is very much like that of the Guira Cuckoo. It is



