Sub-fam. 4. Neomorphinae.–Geococcyx mexicanus, the curious Chapparal-Cock or Road-runner of the South-Western United States and Mexico, frequents thinly-wooded country, hilly cactus-regions or barren plains. The plumage is brownish, with white margins to the feathers and a purple tinge on the rufous-mottled head, neck, and breast; the back is greener, the tail more lilac, the abdomen white, the bare orbits blue and red. With its long stout legs this species covers the ground very quickly, running with outstretched neck, elevated crest, slightly expanded wings, and jerking tail, or springing into trees and taking brief flights: it is even difficult to outpace it with dogs or on horseback. It eats insects, snapping some in the bill as it leaps into the air, and enjoys grasshoppers, mice, and lizards; in captivity it is thievish. The note is low, the beak being occasionally clattered. The nest of twigs and grass, placed in bushes, contains from three to nine white eggs, the male apparently assisting in incubation. Carpococcyx radiatus of Borneo, and C. viridis of Sumatra, are the only Old World species in this group.
Fig. 70.–Radiated Ground-Cuckoo. Carpococcyx radiatus. × ⅙. (From Nature.)
Sub-fam. 5. Diplopterinae.–Diplopterus naevius, a pale brown bird with darker streaks and white under surface, may represent this Central and South American group, of which the only other members are two species of Dromococcyx.
Sub-fam. 6. Crotophaginae.–Of these birds, peculiar to the New World, Crotophaga ani, the Ani, Black Parrot, or Savannah-blackbird, extending from the Southern United States and the Antilles to most of South America, is glossy purplish- or greenish-black, and has the smooth maxilla compressed into a thin vertical plate, which, like the bare orbits, is black. Its grotesque appearance and alleged malpractices have given it the name of Black Witch in the West Indies. C. sulcirostris, ranging from Texas to Peru, has the bill grooved; C. major of South America is larger and greener. Far from shifting the burden of incubation upon other species, the females form huge co-operative nests of interlaced twigs lined with green leaves in trees, wherein each deposits some five bluish eggs with a chalky incrustation, amounting in all to twenty or more. Around or upon these structures they sit in company. Bold but wary, the Anis flit from bush to bush, or creep and jump about the branches, uttering a mewing sound or a sharper double cry. They are often mobbed by other birds. Flocks gather in wooded or marshy spots, and feed on insects, berries, lizards, and so forth; occasionally digging for their prey, or picking the ticks off cattle.
Guira piririgua, of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, is brown and buff above with darker streaks, and buff below, the back and tips of the lateral rectrices being white. From the similarity of habits to Crotophaga it is termed the White Ani in Brazil. Flocks draw near the houses in winter, and sit miserably huddled together on the trees; the note is a long disyllabic whistle, or in the young an hysterical laugh. Usually each pair makes a rough nest of twigs and leaves, laying six or seven pale blue eggs with reticulated chalky coating; though fourteen have been recorded.
Fam. II. Musophagidae.–The Plantain-eaters are striking birds, peculiar to the Ethiopian Region, without Madagascar. They have large eyes and long necks; while the bill, though small in Gallirex, is generally stout and broad with compressed or rounded culmen and serrated margin, and in Musophaga expands into a broad frontal plate behind. The feet are semi-zygodactylous, with reversible outer toe and strong claws; the robust metatarsi are scutellated anteriorly and coarsely granulated posteriorly. The wings are rather short and round, with ten primaries and twelve or thirteen secondaries; the rounded tail of varying length has ten rectrices. The furcula is U-shaped; the tongue sagittate–with bristly apex in Gallirex; the nostrils–hidden in Turacus–are usually oval, but are linear in Schizorhis and Gymnoschizorhis; the aftershaft is large; the nestlings lack down. The red or grey orbits are naked, save in Schizorhis; in Gymnoschizorhis the cheeks and throat are bare and blackish.
Fig. 71.–Green-mantled Turaco. Gallirex chlorochlamys. × ¼.
The six genera comprise two dozen or more species from about thirty to fifteen inches in length; the general coloration being metallic blue and green or greyish-brown, usually varied with crimson, and in the large Corythaeola with yellow; all have erectile crests of different sizes, except Musophaga violacea. The bill is red, yellowish, or black, the feet are black. The sexes are alike, the young duller. The red feathers yield a peculiar pigment, containing copper, called Turacin, which is reducible to a powder; this is so soluble that the colour is washed away during rain or in a bath, though regained subsequently.[[219]]