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HOACTZIN, or HOATZIN

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 542 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HOACTZIN, or HOATZIN , a See also:bird of tropical See also:South See also:America, thought by See also:Buffon to be that indicated by Hernandez or See also:Fernandez under these names, the Opisthocomus hoazin or O. crislatus of See also:modern ornithologists—a very curious and remarkable See also:form, which has See also:long exercised the ingenuity of classifiers. Placed by Buffon among his "Hoccos " (Curassows), and then by P. L. S. See also:Muller and J. F. See also:Gmelin in the Linnaean genus Phasianus, some of its many peculiarities were recognized by J. K. W. Illiger in 1811 as sufficient to establish it as a distinct genus, Opisthocomus; but various positions were assigned to it by subsequent systematic authors. L'Herminier was the first to give any See also:account of its See also:anatomy (Comptes rendus, 1837, V. 433), and from his See also:time our knowledge of it has been successively increased by Johannes Muller (Ber.

Akad. Wissensch. See also:

Berlin, 1841, p. 177), Deville (Rev. et mag. de zoologie, 1852, p. 217), See also:Gervais (See also:Castelnau, Exped. Amerique du Sud, zoologie, anatomic, p. 66), See also:Huxley (Proc. Zoo/. Society, 1868, p. 304), Perrin (Trans. Zool. Society, ix. p.

353), and A. H. Garrod (Proc. Zool. Society, 1879, p. 109). After a See also:

minute description of the See also:skeleton of Opisthocomus, with the especial See also:object of determining its See also:affinities, Huxley declared that it " resembles the See also:ordinary gallinaceous birds and pigeons more than it does any others, and that when it diverges from them it is either sui generis or approaches the Musophagidae." He accordingly regarded it as the type and See also:sole member of a See also:group, named by him Heteromorphae, which sprang from the See also:great Carinate See also:stem later than the Tinamomorphae, Turnicomorphae, or Charadriomorphae, but before the Peristeromorphae, Pteroclomorphae or Alectoromorphae. This conclusion is substantially the same as that at which A. H. Garrod subsequently arrived after closely examining and dissecting specimens preserved in spirit; but the latter has gone further and endeavoured to trace more particularly the descent of this See also:peculiar form and some others, remarking that the ancestor of Opisthocomus must have See also:left the See also:parent stem very shortly before the true Gallinae first appeared, and at about the same time as the See also:independent See also:pedigree of the Cuculidae and Musophagidae commenced—these two See also:groups being, he believed, very closely related, and Opisthocomus serving to fill the See also:gap between there The first thing that strikes the observer of its skeleton is the extraordinary structure of the sternal apparatus, which is wholly unlike that of any other bird known. The See also:keel is only See also:developed on the posterior See also:part of the sternum—the fore part being, as it were, cut away, while the See also:short furcula at its symphysis meets the manubrium, with which it is firmly consolidated by means of a prolonged and straight hypocleidium, and anteriorly ossifies with the coracoids. This unique arrangement seems to be correlated with the enormously capacious See also:crop, which rests upon the furcula and fore part of the sternum, and is also received in a cavity formed on the See also:surface of each of the great See also:pectoral muscles.

Furthermore this crop is extremely See also:

muscular, so as more to resemble a ,gizzard, and consists of two portions divided by a partial constriction, after a See also:fashion of which no other example is known among birds. The true gizzard is greatly reduced. The hoactzin appears to be about the See also:size of a small See also:pheasant, but is really a much smaller bird. The See also:beak is strong, curiously denticulated along the margin of the maxilla near the See also:base, and is beset by diverging bristles. The eyes, placed in the See also:middle of a patch of See also:bare skin, are furnished with bristly lashes, resembling those of See also:horn-bills and some few other birds. The See also:head bears a long See also:pendant See also:crest of loose yellowish feathers. The See also:body is See also:olive-coloured, varied with See also:white above, and beneath Hoactzin. is of a dull See also:bay. The wings are short and rounded. The tail is long and tipped with yellow. The legs are rather short, the feet stout, the tarsi reticulated, and the toes scutellated; the claws long and slightly curved. According to all who have observed the habits of this bird, it lives in bands on the See also:lower trees and bushes bordering the streams and lagoons, feeding on leaves and various See also:wild fruits, especially, says H.

W. See also:

Bates (Naturalist on the See also:River See also:Amazons, i. 12o), those of a See also:species of Psidium, and it is also credited with eating those of an arum (Caladium arborescens), which grows plentifully in its haunts. " Its See also:voice is a harsh, grating hiss," continues the same traveller, and " it makes the See also:noise when alarmed, all the individuals sibilating as they See also:fly heavily away from See also:tree to tree, when disturbed by passing canoes." It exhales a very strong odour—wherefore it is known in See also:British See also:Guiana as the " stink-bird "—compared by Bates to " See also:musk combined with wet hides," and by Deville to that of a cow-See also:house. The species is said to be polygamous; the See also:nest is built on trees, of sticks placed above one another, and softer materials atop. Therein the See also:hen See also:lays her eggs to the number of three or four, of a dull-yellowish white, somewhat profusely marked with reddish blotches and spots, so as to resemble those of some of the Rallidae (Proc. Zool. Society, 1867, pl. xv. fig. 7. p. 164). The See also:young are covered only with very scanty See also:hair, like down, and have well-developed claws on the first and second fingers of the wing, which they use in clambering about the twigs in a quadrupedal manner; if placed in the See also:water they swim and dive well, although the adults seem to be not at all aquatic. (A.

End of Article: HOACTZIN, or HOATZIN

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