CROTOPHAGA, Lin. &C. KEEL-BILL, or .Axr.
Bill smooth or furrowed, curved, entire, laterally com pressed, angular on the margins, keeled at the top ; nos trils basal, lateral, pervious, and oval; tongue compressed, pointed at the tip; wings short ; tail composed of eight feathers.
The birds of this family are called ?ni by the natives of Brazil ; but they have various popular and provincial names in different parts of South America. Their wings are feeble, and their flight is very limited, so that many of them perish in hurricanes. So powerful are their social propensities, that they are almost invariably observed in flocks, the smallest of which usually consists of eight or ten, and the largest of twenty-five or thirty individuals, which keep together, whether flying or at rest, and when they perch on the branch of a tree, they are always clus tered as closely as possible. This mutual harmony dates from their birth ; for they are nursed and live in common. In the month of February they arc conscious of the influ ence of the tender passion, but although then more ani mated than usual, their courtships are conducted without jealousy or disturbance. The males and females labour together in constructing a large nest, which accommo dates several breeders at once. The first that is ready to hatch waits not for her companions, who enlarge the dwelling while she is busied with incubation. The com mon hatching proceeds with perfect amity. The females take their stations close by one another ; and, if the eggs happen to get mixed, or too closely pressed, a single fe male hatches those of other birds along with her own, and pushes them together, that the heat may be equally distri buted over them, without being dissipated. The same good understanding is maintained when the young are ex truded; for the mothers who have incubated feed, in suc cession, every one of the nascent family, the males assist ing in providing the supplies. But such females as have hatched separately, rear their young apart, yet without umbrage or molestation. They construct a rude but very solid nest, with twigs of shrubs, matted together with the filaments of plants, and internally strewed with leaves. This fabric is very wide, and elevated on the edges, being sometimes eighteen inches in diameter, and its capacity proportioned to the number of incubating females. The few which breed separately make a small partition in the nest with stalks of grass, that their eggs may be kept apart. All cover them with leaves or grass as soon as they are laid ; and they repeat this precaution during incubation, as often as they are obliged to leave them to snatch their own food. Each female has several broods in the course of the
year. These birds live both on animal and vegetable food ; but they manifest a predilection to small serpents, lizards, and other reptiles, caterpillars, worms, the larger sorts of ants and termites, and other insects. They like wise alight on cattle, to pick up the ticks, caterpillars, and insects, that lodge in their skin or hair. In default of ani mal nourishment, they will eat various sorts of grains, as maize, millet, rice, wild oats, &c. When on the ground, or perched, they are observed to carry their heads drawn in, or close to the shoulders, sitting near one another, and uttering a constant chattering cry, somewhat in the man ner of starlings. They are neither sh) nor timid, never fly to any distance at a time, and as they are not scared by the noise of fire-arms, many of them may be shot without much trouble; but the rankness of their flesh, and their offensive odour, even when alive, naturally repel the sportsman's ardour. For the rest, they are of gentle dis positions, and easily tamed, and when taken young they may be taught to speak like the parrots. They abound in Guiana, Mexico, Brazil, St. Domingo, &c. generally frequenting places that are open or slightly shaded, and never in woods of any considerable extent. Two of the species particularized by Latham, namely, the Varia and -dnibulatoria, are recorded from imperfect descriptions, and seem to appertain to some other family.
C. niririgua, Vieil. Cuculus guira, Lath. Piririgua Keel-bill, or Brazilian Crested Cuckoo, of Latham. Crest ed, body whitish-yellow ; head, neck, and wing-coverts, varied with brown and yellowish ; tail feathers brown, with white tips. Fifteen inches long. Native of Brazil, where it is called Piririgua, or Piririta, both being imitative of its ordinary cry, which it often repeats, whether on wing or on the ground. It picks up its food in all directions, in plantations, inclosures, thickets, among cattle, &c. and devours crickets, grasshoppers, small lizards, &c. It sometimes mingles with flocks of congenerous species, and breeds in common with them ; but more frequently a troop of its own species form a nest for themselves, plac ing it on high and thick bushes, and giving it a flattened form. The eggs are elongated, as large at one end as at the other, and of a bluish-green, with white veins, which are effaced by a slight rubbing. During incubation, the female is very courageous, and will put to flight any bird which threatens to molest her.