NATURAL HISTORY OF COSTA RICA — RIDGWAY. 323 



tocard) has altogether different notes; they are pleasant to hear, 

 being varied and not unmusical, but somewhat plaintive. 



Some of the pigeons or doves also have notable calls. Once, while 

 hunting in the Pacific coastal plain forest, near Pigres, I heard, for 

 the first time, a sound resembling that made by blowing, at a certain 

 angle, into the mouth of a bottle, but nearly as loud as the bellowing 

 of a bull. I followed up the sound, expecting to find a very large 

 bird — in fact I could think of nothing so likely as a curassow (Crax) ; 

 but was amazed to find the performer to be a small blue-gray dove 

 {Glaravis pretiosa) perched on a bare branch, his crop inflated to the 

 size of a large walnut at the time each note was produced. There 

 are many species of doves or pigeons in the Tropics, and their calls 

 are among the bird notes most often heard. That of one species in 

 particular was conspicuous and was translated by the natives into 

 Don-pdpe-feo (pronounced pap-py-f ayo, and meaning " Don Pape's 

 ugly ") . Probably the most discordant sounds heard in tropical forests 

 are produced by the different species of parrots, especially those large 

 and gaudily colored species, the macaws. These are many as to 

 species and very numerous as to individuals. At Pigres, we were 

 so unfortunate (in a way) as to be encamped close to the roosting 

 place of many hundreds of these birds, representing four of five 

 species, ranging in size from the little tovi parrakeet to the huge 

 red, yellow, and blue macaw. These birds fed in the forest across 

 the river, and, consequently, passed over our camp twice each day — 

 on their way to the feeding grounds in the morning and back to their 

 roosting place before dark. While preparing for their departure 

 in the early morning and, on their return in the evening, before 

 settling down for the night, their preparations were accompanied 

 by much squabbling and such an unearthly squawking, screeching, 

 and quacking, that for the time attempts at conversation were quite 

 useless. It was a most interesting sight to see these parrots during 

 their flight above our camp. Unlike other birds, members of the 

 parrot tribe always fly in pairs, no matter how many hundreds or 

 thousands may be in one flight ; if one bird is seen by itself, as only 

 now and then occurs, that bird has no mate. 



Two members of the hawk tribe also are notable for their loud 

 cries, though neither have louder calls than our red-shouldered hawk 

 nor by any means so pleasing to the ear. The reel-throated ibycter, 

 a large glossy black hawk with white abdomen and bright scarlet 

 face and throat, related to the caracara, roves about in small flocks, 

 at intervals calling out loudly ca, ca, ca, cdo, repeated once or twice ; 

 the other noisy fellow being the laughing falcon (Herpetotheres 

 cachinnans), whose cries bear some resemblance to the mirthless 

 laughter of a demented person. 



