N1D1FICATI0N. 375 



if I can depend on information which has been furnished me, 

 there are parts of the neighbouring continent, in the towns of 

 which none but the red-headed urubu is to be seen. The former 

 swarm in Port-of- Spain, and, from the tops of houses, they are 

 constantly on the watch for the smallest prey which may fall in 

 the streets ; but never is there seen among- them a red-headed 

 urubu. Whenever, in the country, some dead animal attracts 

 the vultures, both species assemble in a band, and seem to act on 

 good terms. 



The habitat of birds, therefore, is not determined by the 

 alimentary substances which suit them : there are other secondary 

 but indispensable conditions which escape observation. 



NlDIFICATION. 



The study of the constructive instinct in birds would un- 

 doubtedly afford much gratification to any one who might 

 devote attention to the subject; but nothing is more difficult 

 than an investigation of that which refers to this part of 

 Ornithology. The luxuriance of our vegetation is such that, 

 wherever forest-trees have yielded to brushwood and its accom- 

 panying variety of plants, the foliage forms a dense screen, 

 impervious to the sight, and concealing within its recesses every 

 possible object ; in fact, it is by mere chance that even a close 

 scrutiny can discover the fabrics which so many species repair 

 thither to construct, and dispose with such artistic skill and care. 

 Even when they are built on large trees, the foliage invariably 

 shrouds them from the eye. There are, however, a few species, 

 such as the carouge and the cassique, which seem to avoid those 

 retreats, and, in preference, append their nests to the extremity 

 of branches, and in the full glitter of the sunbeams. Many pairs 

 of the above congregate at the season of laying, and make choice 

 of the same tree. They give /to their nests the shape of an 

 elongated pear, or rather of a long pouch, the smaller end hanging 

 from the branch by means of a few threads from the tissue of 

 the nest itself. The entrance is lateral, and a little beneath 

 the point of attachment ; the whole being light and graceful, and 

 recalling to the mind that admirable instinct of the feathered 

 tribe, which we cannot but admire in such constructions. 

 Nothing, however, equals the effect which the assemblage of 

 those pendent nests produces, forming, as they do, to the tree 



