CHAPTER XIV 



YOUNG GREY-BACKED TRUMPETERS 



The grey-backed trumpeter (Psopliia crepitans), was 

 fairly common in the jungle about Kalacoon. About every 

 second trip through the woods these birds would either be 

 seen or heard. 



I have scanned ornithological literature and have gath- 

 ered together all our scanty knowledge concerning these 

 interesting birds, and this year I had hoped to solve the mys- 

 tery of their nests and eggs and young. But in this I was 

 only partially successful — tlie nests and eggs must remain 

 unknown until another season, and my monograph of these 

 birds will consequently be delayed until then. 



From Cozier, a reliable boviander bird collector, I got 

 the following data, the accuracy of which time alone will 

 prove. Trumpeters, or warracabras, as they are known 

 throughout Guiana, lay two white eggs. They nest in small 

 colonies, one nest in each adjoining tree, five or six nests in 

 each group. The female takes the young by the wings or back 

 and carries them down to the ground. Cozier said he had 

 seen this accomplished. The nesting season lasts until June, 

 eggs being found as late as that month. The nest is twelve 

 to fifteen feet up, well built of twigs and leaves, deeply hol- 

 lowed so that the bird sits in it. Both parents share the du- 

 ties of incubation, and they will desert neither eggs nor 

 young even after being disturbed many times. 



So much for second hand knowledge. The facts I accu- 

 mulated at first hand had to do only with the adults and 

 young birds. 



Whenever the old birds were alarmed, they would run 

 a short distance and then take refuge on low branches, 

 mounting thence by easy stages until they were quite near 



