Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE STORK-LIKE BIRDS

THE BOAT-BILLS( Family Cochleariidm)

South American boat-bill

The plumage of the South American species is a delicate lavender-gray above, the upper mantle with a broad band of black extending a little way down its sides, the wing-quills hoary gray or whitish, and the lower back, rump, upper tail-coverts and tail hoary gray, while the crown and crest are blue-black, the forehead white, the sides of the face, throat, and chest white, becoming delicate lavender-gray along the sides, and the breast and abdomen dark cinnamon-rufous; the eyes are large and dark, the upper mandible dark brown, and the lower mandible clear yellow, while the feet are dull or dirty yellow. The Central American species (C. zeledoni) is similar to the other except that it is larger, the general coloration much darker and browner, the crest much shorter, and has the throat and breast pale vinous or light tawny.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Boat-bills are very widely distributed and have been known to science for upward of one hundred and fifty years, comparatively little appears to have been recorded concerning their life history.

They appear to associate in small flocks or colonies and to frequent the mangrove swamps, being apparently nocturnal in their habits. Thus Salvin records finding the more northern species on the Cays of British Honduras and in Guatemala, skulking in the mangroves, and Mr. C. C. Nutting found them in similar situations in Costa Rica, while Dr. Richmond observed several colonies on the Rio Frio, Costa Rica. Mr. E. A. Goldman, who has seen them at a number of points in Central America, regards the Boat-bill as a stupid, dull bird, permitting one to approach within a dozen or fifteen feet, and when taking wing only flying for a few yards to skulk among the tangled undergrowth.

The note is described as a harsh croak or squawk. The nest and eggs appear to be unknown. As already hinted, even the casual observer would doubtless be struck at once by the strong — albeit somewhat superficial — resemblance between the members of the present family and the great African Shoe-bill, the sole tenant of the succeeding family; but when the structural characters are compared it is found to be rather a case of”converging analogy”than actual affinity.”At first sight,”says Dr. Stejneger,”the Cochlearius seems to represent a pygmy Balaeniceps, between the legs of which it can stand upright without bending its neck, but even the outward likeness between the two bills is, on nearer inspection, by no means so great as would appear at first sight.”Although Professor

Parker argued for a distinct relationship between them, it is improbable that they could have been derived from a common ancestor, but on the other hand the points of agreement with the Night Heron (NycHcorax) are so numerous and important as to leave no doubt as to the direction we must look for affinity.

In fact, some systematists, regarding the Boat-bill as merely a Night Heron with an exaggerated bill, decline to accord it more than subgeneric rank under NycHcorax, but as Mr. Ridgway has shown, it has become modified and specialized in so many ways and so important features, besides the bill and the consequent alteration of the skull, that it seems well entitled to separate family rank.

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