VOICES OF TROPICAL BIRDS — FUERTES. 321 



them before. The male, with his elongated and convoluted wind- 

 pipe, has the louder and rougher cry, which, by virtue of the longer 

 instrument to trumpet through, is an exact octave lower than that 

 of his normally equipped mate. O. vetula^ from Mexico, says quite 

 plainly " Cha-cha-lac'-ca. Cha-cha-lac'-ca," or, as the Mexicans more 

 phonetically spell it, " Guacharra'ca." It has a very human quality of 

 voice and sounds nearly as loud at a quarter of a mile as it does at a 

 hundred yards. The Colombian species heard in the Magdalena Val- 

 ley seemed to my ear to screech "Aqua-dock." The various members 

 of a calling flock keep time, roughly, according to sex. They are 

 apt to call from up on the mountain sides or in ravines, when the 

 rebounding echoes complicate and augment the chorus immensely. 



Another noteworthy voice is the rolling cry of Aramides^ the big 

 rusty-colored wood-rail. As dusk was falling around me on a 

 forested mountain side, while working my w^ay out to the trail, I 

 was suddenly congealed by a loud, rolling cry, hastily repeated three 

 or four times. It sounded in front of me, behind me, over me, and 

 under me. I began to think it was all around me. A loud hoot, 

 then a rising, rolling trill — " Oot- roo-ee-e-e-e- oot- roo-ee-e-e-," I 

 found I could do it by " pigeon tooting " through my hands, so that 

 the bird came quite near and thrilled me deeply. But it was too 

 dark, and I knew not where to look for it. After a few responses 

 it slipped away, still a mystery; but when I reached camp and imi- 

 tated it for Mr. Cherrie he at once recognized it as Araimdes; and 

 this diagnosis is his, not mine, for I never had another opportunity 

 to identify it. 



Among the lasting impressions that I have brought out of the 

 Tropics certainly one of the most vivid is of the great, sultry, odor- 

 ous, and soundful marshes of the Magdalena and Cauca Valleys. 

 These treacherous reaches have a fascination and exert a call upon 

 the novice naturalist that is indeed likely to get him into trouble. 

 Everything that charms the senses in a northern water field is here 

 multiplied. Plant life is riot, insects accordingly swarm, and many 

 species of birds avail themselves of the easy food they furnish. The 

 allurements of a fragrant, shimmering sheet of placid water, with 

 beds of floating plants made gay with the delicately lovely Jacanas, 

 fighting their innocent battles and displaying their lemon butterfly 

 wings; the dignified spurwinged plover that trot on the margins 

 or fly in noisy flocks, like Dutch lapwings, low over the surrounding 

 pasture lands; perhaps a bare snag far out in the deep marsh, all 

 in glowing blossom with roseate spoonbills and snowy herons; the 

 loud clatter of the giant kingfisher and the dry rasping of his 

 tiny " Texas " cousin ; statuesque screamers posing on an exposed 

 bar; the squealing whistles of the tree ducks dabbling and sunning 



18618°— SM 1915 21 



