A smaller kind,
Porphyriops melanops, has a night-cry like a burst of shrill hysterical
laughter, which has won for it the name of "witch;" while another,
Rallus rythyrhynchus, is called "little donkey" from its braying cries.
Strange eerie voices have all these birds. Of the remaining aquatic
species, the most important is the spur-winged crested screamer; a noble
bird as large as a swan, yet its favourite pastime is to soar upwards
until it loses itself to sight in the blue ether, whenca it pours forth
its resounding choral notes, which reach the distant earth clarified,
and with a rhythmic swell and fall as of chiming bells. It also sings by
night, "counting the hours," the gauchos say, and where they have
congregated together in tens of thousands the mighty roar of their
combined voices produces an astonishingly grand effect.
The largest aquatic order is that of the Limicolse--snipes, plover, and
their allies--which has about twenty-five species. The vociferous
spur-winged lapwing; the beautiful black and white stilt; a true snipe,
and a painted snipe, are, strictly speaking, the only residents; and it
is astonishing to find, that, of the five-and-twenty species, at least
thirteen are visitors from North America, several of them having their
breeding-places quite away in the Arctic regions. This is one of those
facts concerning the annual migration of birds which almost stagger
belief; for among them are species with widely different habits, upland,
marsh and sea-shore birds, and in their great biannual journey they pass
through a variety of climates, visiting many countries where the
conditions seem suited to their requirements.
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