32 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



that /. vulyaris occurs on Curagao, and is said to be 

 paler than the continental form; 'but Dr. Hartert ."-ays : 

 " My birds, on the contrary, have very bright colours. '' 

 He adds that they are rather short-winged, but those 

 from Santa Marta in the British Museum are quite 

 similar. Further on he says : " I did not find any 

 nests ; but, as everybody on Curacao knows, they are 

 totally different from those of Icterus xanthonnis in 

 not having the long tube. 



" This bird is much appreciated as a cage-bird 011 

 account of its pure flute-like notes, and is often sent 

 for sale from Venezuela. This >pi ci<-s is not rave in 

 certain places, such as the rocky hills covered with 

 brushwood and cactus, both on Aruba and Curacao, but 

 it is absent from Bonaire, thus indicating its immigra- 

 tion from the Continent. I saw it in the bush on St. 

 Thomas, where it has already been stated to occur by 

 Ridgway. It may have been introduced into 'that 

 island ; but, on account of other affinities between the 

 ornis of St. Thomas and that of Curasao, this is very 

 questionable." (The Ibis, 1893, pp. 297, 298.) 



My first example of this species was solS to me under 

 the name of "Brazilian Hangnest " in 1899, and I 

 described it as that species in The Avicultural Mar/a - 

 zinc. First Series, Vol. VIII., pp. 293-295. It twice 

 opened its own cage-door and escaped into my con- 

 servatory, where it took twenty minutes to catch it : 

 subsequently I put a double fastening on the cage-door. 

 When singing he stands high on his feet, throws back 

 his head, with the bill pointing straight upwards, and 

 raises the long feathers on the throat ; then he begins 

 to make a clicking sound, which can be imitated by 

 pressing the tongue against the palate and removing it 

 suddenly, or a rattling purring note, which can be 

 reproduced by closing the lips, humming and simulta- 

 neously vibrating the soft palate ; then the song begins 

 now and again with a clearly whistled Hoolcarae, 

 hookarce. sometimes repeated half a dozen times as a 

 prelude, but by no means always ; the true song follows 

 a quickly-repeated resonant whistle, heo, heo, heo, heo. 

 Jui>, heo, /ico, lii'o in a loud tone, and then a little 

 lower : it never varies except in the number of repeti- 

 tions of the monotonous note. 



In December, 1906, Miss Joan Gladstone sent me her 

 Hangnest, which struck me as being quite distinct from 

 my first bird in the characters already indicated, and 

 when it began to sing I felt sure that it was, at least, a 

 different sub-species : it never introduces the characteris- 

 tic Ilookaree as a prelude, and instead of the monoto- 

 nous whistle it has certainly nine (possibly more) varia- 

 tions in its songs. I recorded these in my paper pre- 

 viously referred to, the two m&s't frequently uttered 

 being " Or-yer, hurri-er, fioir. hee; chiitclia-cair, 

 cfniffhct-cau-, chutcha-ccnr, rhufrj,a-rai/-. chiitcJia-cair ; 

 hee " (or " ar hee"), and the other begins either with 

 the note "fleer," or sometimes "Or, ah, hee," and 

 then " hippoopoo /, hippoopno peer, tnni/Jc-i/rar. ar 

 In''.'' These Hangnests are nice birds; but, woe betide 

 any small bird that comes within reach of their bills. I 

 had a beautiful male Cordon Bleu in the next compart- 

 ment to my lemon-coloured specimen, and one day it 

 foolishly rested a moment on the wire partition ; in a 

 moment it was seized with bill and claw, half its wing 

 feathers torn out, and a great hole pecked in the side 

 of its head: another day a Zebra Finch lost a mvit 

 bunch of feathers, but escaped without further injury. 



The correct food for this and all the Hangnests is 

 the same as for Tanagers a good insectivorous mix- 

 ture containing plenty of yolk of egg (the first thing 

 they select, as all insectivorous birds do), plenty of 

 ripe fruit grapes, sweet orange or pear and banana 

 and a few insects or spiders when obtainable. 



BRAZILIAN HANGNEST (Icterus jamacaii). 



Bright reddish orange ; head and throat, scapularies, 

 wings excepting lesser coverts, and tail, black ; outer 

 borders of secondaries broadly white, forming a con- 

 spicuous patch ; bill almost black, the base of lower- 

 mandible pearl-whitish; feet black; naked orbital 

 lozenge pearl grey; irides pale primrose or bone yel- 

 lowish. Female smaller, and with noticeable shorter 

 bill. Hab., S.E. Brazil. 



Burmeister (" Systematische Uebersicht," Vol. HI., 

 p. 269) says : " In the interior of Brazil, in the forests 

 of the Campos region, it lives singly or in pairs ; in the 

 winter in small parties; it soon betrays itself by its 

 changeable voice with various notes, and for that reason 

 is frequently kept in cages. I met with the bird in 

 the environs of Lagoa santa, but had no opportunity 

 of securing it." " Its food consists of insects, especially 

 soft maggots and larvae, which it searches for on the 

 ground ; yet (like the species of Cassicus) it takes toll 

 of ripe fruit, especially oranges,, and comes after them 

 even into the gardens of the settlers." 

 This beautiful species has always been fairly common 



BRAZILIAN HANGNEST. 

 (Head and shoulders of male. } 



in the bird market, though not enough so to make it a 

 cheap bird ; Ruse puts the price at from 18 to 24 marks 

 a specimen, which is rather higher than it generally 

 rune in England ; I should think 15s. to 20s., either for 

 this or the Common Hangnest (which is always con- 

 founded with it), would be about the usual price for 

 freshly imported specimens. Of course, thorough ly 

 acclimatised examples in perfect plumage would be 

 worth more. I purchased a male of this species on 

 August 13th. 1897, but it was in poor condition and 

 out of health, eo that it only lived thirteen days. It 

 was quite tame friendly even and in epite of its state 

 of health made a few attempts to sing, the notes being 

 clear, mellow, and pleasing. I fed it on orange, banana, 

 soft, food, and mealworms. 



The Brazilian Hangnest first reached the London 

 Zoological Gardens in 1860, and those of Amsterdam in 

 Ibci5. Why the name jttin<i<-(iii was given to the spr 

 I do not pretend to know, but Russ says that the bird 

 was supposed to have com from Jamaica, which was, 

 of course, an error, and then he makes matters still 

 worse by altering it to j(i/>iairr>i.<;.<. .laiixn-a't't means 

 nothing, but j(iw(i'i<'<-ii*\x is mischievous and misleading. 



