A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



These represent, in America, the starlings of the Old World, but 

 they have evolved along their own lines, producing forms, like the 

 Japiis, as big as a crow. Their plumage is most commonly a glossy 

 black, whose dignity is enhanced by inlaid patches or stripes of red 

 or yellow. 



In the north of Brazil the stately Checheou is common : a bird 

 beautifully marked with black and golden yellow, which in the south 

 is replaced by the Melro, a smaller edition. The Checheou is a 

 splendid mimic of other birds. He listens attentively to all that goes 

 on around him, and then repeats it. I often amused myself by 

 listening to a Checheou which sat in the boughs of a great Strangler- 

 fig (Plate 1 8), whose large, glossy, cabbage-like leaves formed a 

 fine background for the black and yellow of the bird. Sometimes 

 the voice from the tree was like that of a ventriloquist; then it 

 would utter all manner of possible and impossible sounds, interrupted 

 by powerful flute-like notes. 



The Checheou builds large bag-shaped nests, which it prefers to 

 suspend from swaying twigs overhanging the water. It is fond also 

 of building near a wasps' nest, as if any animal with an appetite 

 for eggs approaches, it is driven off by the pugnacious bird with the 

 help of the wasps, alarmed and irritated by its excited behaviour. 

 The sorry defeat and retirement of monkeys who had intended to 

 rob the Checheou has often been witnessed. 



The big black Japus have similar habits to the Checheou's, 

 except that they build their hanging nests in colonies. A bird widely 

 famed as an excellent singer, and often kept in cages, is the Grauna. 

 The Soffrer too, that handsome black and orange bird of the Sertao, 

 is a good singer. I was less pleased by the voice of the Soldado, 

 a black starling with scarlet shoulders. It was with wonder and 

 admiration that I gazed (in March) at a flock of these birds disporting 

 themselves in a meadow in Pernambuco. But when one of the cock 

 birds began to sing it seemed at first that he could not quite manage 

 to bring out his voice, until suddenly his efforts were crowned by 

 two shrill major thirds. The beak of this bird is so powerful that 

 when we caught one he struck it clean through the wooden bars 

 of the cage. 



Other Brazilian singers which have earned their name by their 

 musical tones are the "Organists." In the forest of Alto da Serra 

 I heard the Gurundi, a noble black bird with a red hood. The piping 

 of the cock is like that of the Oriole : tiiiu tuiu tuulti diu tuuludiu. These 

 birds are noticeable both for their plumage and for their excited 

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