_Psophia crepitans_, the Agami, ranging from British Guiana to Amazonia, is a black bird with velvety plumage on the head and neck, and lax feathering below; a golden-green and violet sheen adorns the lower fore-neck, a rusty brown patch crosses the back and wing-coverts, the bare orbits are pinkish, the beak is greenish or greyish, and the legs are variously stated to be bright green or flesh-coloured. _P. napensis_ of Ecuador has the sheen on the neck dull purple, _P. leucoptera_ of Peru and Upper Amazonia lacks the brown above, and has the inner wing-coverts and inner secondaries white, these feathers being ochraceous in _P. ochroptera_ of the right bank of the Rio Negro. _P. viridis_ of Amazonia–from Pará up the right bank of the Rio Madeira to the Rio Mamoré–perhaps identical with _P. obscura_, has the back and inner secondaries glossed with green. The sexes are similar. These birds love moist forests, and sometimes form flocks of three hundred individuals; they are so sociable and easily tamed that the natives use them to protect poultry. They perch, but seldom fly, and run swiftly with a peculiar gait, while they swim on an emergency. The deep-toned ventriloquistic, but not strictly trumpeting, cry is uttered with widely opened beak; the food consists of fruit, corn, and insects. The nest, said to be at the foot of a tree, contains creamy- or greyish-white eggs, like those of a Bantam. Fam. V. CARIAMIDAE.–These birds have given rise to much discussion, and have been placed by several authors in the Accipitres, near the Secretary-Bird, which they somewhat resemble in their erect carriage, general appearance, and habits. The beak is short, broad, and slightly hooked, the neck is rather long, the legs decidedly so; the tibia is partially bare, the metatarsus is entirely scutellated, the claws are sharp and curved. The wings are short, with fourteen elongated secondaries and ten primaries; the long, graduated tail has twelve rectrices. The nostrils are pervious. The internal anatomy and pterylosis are Gruine, an aftershaft is present, and the downy young are either grey and brown (_Cariama_) or rufous and black (_Chunga_). _Cariama cristata_, the Seriemá, or Crested Screamer (p. 110), extending from Pernambuco to Paraguay and Matto Grosso, is ochreous-grey above with zigzag umber markings, and whitish below with brown stripes. Vertical feathers on the lores form a conspicuous crest, while those of the neck and throat {259}are long and loose; interrupted white bands cross the remiges, and the bases and tips of the lateral rectrices. The iris is yellow, the beak and feet are red, the naked orbits greenish. The female is yellower, and exhibits less crest. _Chunga burmeisteri_, the Chuñia of Tucuman and Catamarca in Argentina, is smaller and darker, with shorter legs and little crest; it has a broad white superciliary streak, and two wide black bars on the tail-feathers, except the median pair. The bill and feet are black, the iris is grey.