Birds are found in Paraguay which, in some respects, resemble European
pheasants. The commonest species is the yacù. This bird is equal in size
to a full grown hen; its feathers are of a very black colour, and its
flesh extremely well tasted. It mostly frequents woods near a river or
lake. At sun-set or sun-rise, you may find a number of them on one tree.
When one is brought down by a gun, the rest do not fly away, but only
recede a little farther on the bough which they are sitting upon, and
there remain till they are all killed by repeated firings. This I have
often witnessed, and wondered much that the birds were neither scared by
the report of the gun, nor impelled to flight by the deaths of their
companions.