Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/287

274 walk with ease and celerity on the leaves of aquatic plants that float on the surface of rivers and lakes in tropical countries. Their food is believed to consist principally of the seeds and leaves of such plants as grow in the waters.

The tropical regions of South America, Africa, and Asia, are the native countries of these birds, which are found only in the vicinity of large expanses of water.

The Screamers are large birds which are confined to the hot and teeming forests of South America. They have the beak shorter than the head, covered at the base with small feathers slightly arched, rather high at the base, tapering to the point, where it descends somewhat abruptly. The forehead is armed with a long, slender pointed horn. The nostrils are oval and open. The wings are armed with two spurs, the one large and lancet-shaped, situated on the shoulder, the other a little nearer to the tip; these are firmly fixed on a bony core: the third and fourth quills are the longest. The front toes are united at the base by a small membrane; the hind claw is very long, straight, and sharp: the tarsi are clothed with regular many-sided scales instead of transverse plates.

There is only one ascertained species, the Horned Screamer (Palamedea cornuta, .), called in Brazil the Anhima, and in Guiana the Camichi or Camouche. It is larger than a goose, of a greenish-black hue, variegated on the long neck with white, and marked with a large cinnamon-coloured spot on the shoulder.