158 CENTRAL AMERICA. 



There are also a great many species of* 

 birds in the forest with very beautiful plu- 

 mage, but very disagreeable voices, such as 

 the red makaw, parrots, parroquets, little 

 love-birds. The variety of the parrot tribe 

 is very great, from the large green parrot to 

 the most diminutive. They are all of the 

 green species, and the young of the large are 

 much better to eat than young pigeons. The 

 smaller ones, roasted like larks or fried in a 

 pan, are also very good, but it seems canni- 

 balish to eat an animal who can learn to 

 speak English. 



The traveller, passing from the " tierra 

 caliente,"" or low, hot plains, to the " tierra 

 fria," or upper table-lands, both sees and 

 hears many strange birds ; but the plumage 

 is almost invariably finer than the voice. 

 One bird, however, I heard a few times, had 

 such a remarkable song that I learnt it by 

 whistling, and on returning home took the 

 notes from a guitar, and wrote them down ; 

 I also wrote down the curious call of another 

 bird, that sounded exactly like the lower 

 octave of a clarionet, running down the scale 

 from the key-note to the third, fifth, and 

 octave, slow but rich and powerful. I never 

 could see one of these birds, though I have 



