CHARACTERISTIC BIRDS. 
199 
variety of form America knows no stint. Upon the 
highest peaks of its mighty mountains, as well as in the 
darkest recesses of the primaeval forest, and on the bosom 
of its ocean, life is seen in all around. From such a 
cornucopia it is difficult, if not impossible, to choose that 
which is most characteristic: here, every animal bears 
upon it the unmistakable impress of its home—a home 
like this! I must, perforce, confine myself to the birds 
most generally known, and can only give names where I 
would describe, generalise where I should like to enter 
upon details. 
South America is the home of the Araras (Arci) and 
Parrakeets ( Gonurus ); the native land of different 
Tanagers ( Pitiylus and Tanagra), the Hang-nests and 
Orioles ( Icterus , Cassicus), the Blue Crows ( Cyanocorax , 
Cyanocitta), the Tooth-billed Falcons ( Herpetotheres , Har- 
pagus ), and different Hawk Eagles ( Pterniirci , Morphnus, 
Harpyia), the various Screaming Buzzards ( Piostrhamus , 
Hypomorphms , Milvctgo, Ibycter ), the King of the Vultures 
(Gyparelms papa ): the wonderful Guacharo (Steatornis 
caripensis ), is a tenant of this land, a bird, in some 
degree, resembling the Goatsuckers, and which inhabits 
the most desolate caverns and crevasses of the 
mountains,—over whose peaks the Condor wheels its 
wondrous flight,—a Swallow-like bird, which lives on 
fruit, and has given rise among the Indians to more 
legends than any other of its neighbours, which is, in 
some degree, regarded as an enchanted being, and is 
sought after as a great prize. Not to mention numerous 
Tyrant Flycatchers, we here meet with a remarkable 
number of singular singing birds, such as the Bush 
Shrikes and the Greenlets ( Thamnophilus , Vireo ), the 
Manakins and Cocks-of-the-Rock ( Rupicola , Pipra ), the 
