186 WOOD NOTES WILD. 



Bright Plumage vs. Song. — Contin. 



flowers : while the odorous blossoms are the pale off- 

 spring of the North, the fragrant leaves and aromatic 

 wood are found in the tropics. Henry Berthoud tells 

 of a Bird of Paradise that he heard sing " Partant pour 

 la Syrie." 



For an account of a brilliantly colored little bird, called in St. Domingo 

 the organist (Pipra musica, GmeL), " because it sounds all the notes of the 

 octave, rising from the bass to the treble," see Buffou's Natural Hist. 

 (Trans, by Wm. Smellie, London, 1812), vol. xvi. pp. 346-347. 



Buffon believes this to be the same bird described under 

 the name " bishop " in Dupratz's Hist, of Louisiana : — 



" Its notes are so flexible, its warble so tender, that when we 

 once hear it, we become more reserved in our eulogiums on 

 the nightingale. Its song lasts during a Miserere, and during 

 the whole time it never makes an inspiration ; it rests twice 

 as long before it renews its music, the whole interval elapsed 

 being about two hours." 



Organ-Bird. 



The trustworthy observer, Mr. Bates, writes of a songster 

 of the Amazonian forest, called also the organ-bird, or 

 realejho (^Cyphorhinus cantans) : — 



" When its singular notes strike the ear for the first time the impres- 

 sion cannot be resisted that they are produced by a human voice. Some 

 musical boy must be gathering fruits in the thickets, and is singing a few 

 notes just to cheer himself. The tones become more fluty and plaintive, — 

 they are now those of a flageolet ; and notwithstanding the utter impos- 

 sibility of the thing, one is for the moment convinced that some one is 



playing that instrument It is the only songster which makes an 



impression on the natives, who sometimes rest their paddles whilst travel- 



