The SURUKUA, or TOURACO (_Trogon Suracua_), is a magnificent bird, ten
inches and a quarter long, and fourteen and a half broad; the wing
measures four inches and a half, and the tail three inches and one-third.
The male is blueish black on the head and throat, the back is green,
the belly blood-red. The back, throat, and head-feathers gleam with
metallic lustre, the feathers on the wing-covers are marked with delicate,
undulating lines of black and white, and are edged with white; the centre
tail-feathers are blue tipped with black. The next in order are black with
a blueish green on the outer web, whilst the fourth and fifth on each side
are white at the tip, and the outermost white on the entire exterior web.
The eye is deep red, the bare eyelid orange, the beak whitish, and the
foot greyish black. The upper part of the female's body is grey, and her
under side rose-red.
The Surukua inhabits the primitive forests of Southern Brazil and Northern
Paraguay, and passes its life in a state of the utmost inanition,
remaining motionless for hours together, upon a branch, and scarcely
rousing sufficiently to turn its head at the sight of a passing insect; so
complete is this condition of dreamy indolence, that Azara assures us one
of these birds may be struck down from its perch with a stick. The flight
of this species is soft and owl-like. The eggs are deposited in holes
excavated in such nests of the termite as are situated upon trees. Azara
mentions having seen a Surukua hanging like a Woodpecker from the moss,
as it hollowed out a cavity with its beak, his mate meanwhile remaining
quietly perched upon a neighbouring branch, and apparently stimulating her
mate to renewed exertions by her gestures and glances; at this period,
the constantly-repeated cry of the male resembles the syllables "pio,
pio." The eggs, two to four in number, and of a white colour, are laid in
September. The flesh of the Surukua is excellent.