[94 Notes (>)i Jungle and Other Wild Life. 



campanero, or Bell Bird, never fails to attract the attention of 

 -the passeng-er; at a distance of nearly three miles you may hear 

 this snow-white bird tollini^' every 4 or 5 minutes, like the distant 

 convent bell. From six to nine in the morning the forests 

 resound with the mingled cries and strains of the feathered race; 

 after this they gradually die away!" 



In this connection I must point out that few are the birds 

 whose notes or calls are similarly interpreted by even a majority 

 of careful and competent observers. The fact reminds me of 

 the differences of opinion expressed on viewing the newly-painted 

 portrait of a friend; each of us sees it differently. And so with 

 bird notes; each of us hears them differently. We had a 

 concrete example of this truth as we five sat in our boat on the 

 upper Potaro listening to and watching carefully the vocal 

 performance — for such it deserves to be designated — of numer- 

 ous Bell Birds (J^avosoria alba). They are snow-white beauties, 

 about the size of a large blue jay. and have a curious, long, 

 black, erectile, pipe-stem-like wattle, partly covered with white 

 feathers, attached to the centre of the forehead. After listening 

 for an hour or so to the bird's double-note, or " tolling " call, 

 each of us was asked to say what well-known sound it resembles. 

 None of us thought it recalled Waterton's " distant convent 

 bell;" one said " it's exactly like the sound caused by a single 

 stroke on a triangle;" another " one stroke of a blacksmith's 

 hammer on his anvil;" still another " a single blast of a police- 

 man's whistle, heard a hundred yards away;" another "one 

 blow on a medium-range tube of the xylophone;" and fifthly, 

 a stroke on a loud dimier gong." J. J. Ouelch (Chubb's 

 Birds of BritisJi (hiiana. Vol. II.. p. xxxi.) adds something to 

 his confusion of similes by giving it as his opinion that — the 

 campanero's call varies with age and sex. 



So numerotis and so beautiful were the brids we saw on 

 tliis trip that the necessarily brief references to them in this 

 letter might better, perhaps, not ha^•e been made, partly because 

 the tale may be fatiguing and partly because you may think that 

 those mentioned are the chief ones to excite wonder and admira- 

 tion, although the truth is that there are dozens of others equally 

 lirilliant and even more remarkable. Just consider a few of 

 the latter — the cotingas, for instance, of which the scarlet 

 variety, ablaze with reddened areas from head to tail ; the purple- 



