124 Mr. C. W. Wyatt on the 



ficulty, and we added several fresh species to our collection. Up 

 the trunks of trees hovered the beautiful purple-throated Hum- 

 ming-bird [Heliangelus clarissa) ; Panoplites flavescens flitted 

 amongst the foliage ; the forest resounded with the cries of the 

 noisy Toucan [Andigena nigrirostris), whose bodies were consi- 

 dered a dainty morsel by our muleteers, and with the tapping 

 of the Woodpeckers, to whose sturdy strokes on the decayed 

 timber I was never tn-ed of listening; Squirrels also added 

 not a little to the general clamour, and the whole place, 

 when we visited it in the early morning, seemed to teem with 

 animal life. This, however, is far from being the case in gene- 

 ral. On the contrary, we often rode mile after mile, hour after 

 hour, in these grand forests without seeing or hearing any 

 thing of their feathered inhabitants; and this, perhaps, is 

 hardly to be wondered at when we consider the immense range 

 which they have. 



It was a few hours after leaving this place that we fell in 

 with the large Trogon [Fharomacrus auriceps) and the Peru- 

 vian Manakin. To see such gorgeous birds alive amidst the 

 beautiful vegetation of their native forests is a sight never to be 

 forgotten. They may, however, be easily overlooked, as, unless 

 disturbed, they generally sit motionless on the bough of some 

 tree, hidden among the foliage. Fharomacrus auriceps was 

 sitting in a palm tree, and we did not know what bird it was 

 until we saw it falling into a dell of gigantic ferns — ferns 

 with fronds of some fourteen feet length. The peon, who was 

 close at hand, made a frantic dive into the ferns and disap- 

 peared, followed by myself. He had, however, the start of me, 

 as a minute afterwards I found myself flat on my face, and my 

 gun several yards in front of me. After another scramble, and 

 another fall, most of the readers of ' The Ibis' will, I think, 

 be able to fancy what my feelings must have been when I saw 

 P. auriceps struggling on the ground under the clumsy grasp 

 of the peon. While I was trying to get out of the ferns (no 

 easy matter), W. heard the note of the hen bird, and brought 

 her down from a neighbouring tree; just, however, as he was 

 stooping to pick her up, she fluttered away into the forest, where 

 to follow was an utter impossibility. 



