184 Mr. O. V. Aplin on the 



the bird sat iu the doorway until I came within a few paces 

 of it. The song is a succession of clear, sharp, shrill notes, 

 falling in tone and quickening towards the close. 



64. HoMORUs LOPHOTEs. Brown Cachalote. 



I found this fine bird in several places in the monte of 

 the Arroyo Grande, and also on a few occasions in the quinta 

 at Sta. Elena, which is a long way from any river-monte ; 

 but it was far from common. The first I shot (a female) flew 

 up from the ground and uttered harsh Jay-like cries of alarm 

 as it flitted and climbed about a talabush — its crest elevated. 

 The iris is straw-yellow, bill blue-grey. On the 29tli 

 January I watched a pair about their nest in one of the 

 avenues of big Eucalyptus (jlolmlus trees at Sta. Adelaida. The 

 female went on to the nest, and the male remained outside 

 preening his feathers. The nest was about 30 feet up, on a 

 few horizontal shoots from the trunk. It was built of rather 

 big sticks and was quite large, about 30 x 18 inches^ shaped 

 like a pear flattened at the sides and lying on one side, the 

 entrance-hole being underneath near the neck or small end. 

 The note of this bird is a very hard harsh scream, loud, 

 beginning high, many times repeated, and becoming lower 

 and deeper in tone and quicker in delivery. The male bird 

 at the nest mentioned above afterwards flew to some fruit- 

 trees, where he crept about with the quick jerky movements 

 of a Woodpecker. I have observed these birds at the picado 

 through the Arroyo Grande leading from Sta. Elena to Sta. 

 Adelaida, and at various other places in the monte. I shot a 

 fine male on the 23rd April. 



65. PicoLAPTEs ANGUSTiROSTRis. Narrow-biUcd Wood- 

 hewer. 



I met with this species only once, viz. on the 16th Decem- 

 ber, in the monte of the Eio Negro, when I shot one in a low 

 thorny tree. It was by far the most active climbing bird I 

 ever saw, and, being only winged, it escaped my grasp and 

 ran twice to the top of the tree after being shaken dowai 

 before I could secure it. 



