m THE NATURAL HISTORY 
of each other, that if one dies, the other mourns 
and pines to death near the place where it loft its 
partner, Their legs are rather fhort, but their 
wings and tails are long, ‘They make their nefts 
of mud, at the foot of a tree, in the form of an. 
oven. Some fay, indeed, that they make their 
nefts among thickets, at a little diftance from the © : 
ground; and others, that ey build on high trees. 
They lay two eggs. . 
In the vaft continent of America the rivers are 
the largeft in the world; in the rainy feafons they 
overfow their banks; the water and mud which 
they leave behind fore prodigious ma rfhes, Thefe 
marthes are inhabited by fnakes of an enormous 
fize, by alligators, (which are the crocodiles of 
America,) by toads, lizards, and a thoufand other 
creeping things; millions of gnats and infects — 
fwarm in the air, and draw together great flocks. 
_ of birds of prey. 
In thefe vait and gloomy deferts nothing is 
heard but their cries, se the ‘croaking of the 
reptiles, — 
Among thefe noifes, the cry of the Screamer is 
heard; it is loud and terrible. Yet, notwith- 
| Sending its cry, and the fpurs which its wings are 
furnithed with, the bird is very harmlefs, and — 
ss ; feeds 
