GUIRA PIRIUKJUA. :;;>, 



sheltered from the wind, the birds crowding close together for warmth, 

 and some of them roosting perched on the backs of their fellows. I 

 have frequently seen them roosting three deep, one or two birds at the 

 top to crown the pyramid ; but with all their huddling together a severe 

 frost is sure to prove fatal to one or more birds in the flock ; and some- 

 times several birds that have dropped from the branch stiff with cold 

 are found under the trees in the morning. If the morning is fair the 

 flock betakes itself to some large tree, on which the sun shines, to 

 settle on the outermost twigs on the northern side, each bird with its 

 wings drooping, and its back turned towards the sun. In this spirit- 

 less attitude they spend an hour or two warming their blood and dry- 

 ing the dew from their scanty dress. During the day they bask much 

 in the sun, and towards evening may be again seen on the sunny side 

 of a hedge or tree warming their backs in the last rays. It is owing, 

 no doubt, to fecundity, and to an abundance of food that the Guira 

 Cuckoo is able to maintain its existence so far south in spite of its 

 terrible enemy the cold. 



With the return of warm weather this species becomes active, noisy, 

 and the gayest of birds; the flock constantly wanders about from place 

 to place, the birds flying in a scattered desultory manner one behind the 

 other, and incessantly uttering while on the wing a long complaining 

 cry. At intervals during the day they also utter a kind of song, com- 

 posed of a series of long modulated whistling notes, two-syllabled, the 

 first powerful and vehement, and becoming at each repetition lower 

 and shorter, then ending in a succession of hoarse internal sounds like 

 the stertorous breathing of a sleeping man. When approached all the 

 birds break out into a chorus of alarm, with notes so annoyingly loud 

 and sustained, that the intruder, be it man or beast, is generally glad 

 to hurry out of ear-shot. As the breeding-season approaches they are 

 heard, probably the males, to utter a variety of soft low chattering 

 notes, sounding sometimes like a person laughing and crying together : 

 the flock then breaks up into pairs, the birds becoming silent and very 

 circumspect in their movements. The nest is usually built in a thorn- 

 tree, of rather large sticks, a rough large structure, the inside often 

 lined with green leaves plucked from the trees. The eggs are large for 

 the bird, and usually six or seven in number ; but the number varies 

 greatly, and I have known one bird lay as many as fourteen. They are 

 elliptical in form and beautiful beyond comparison, being of an exquisite 

 turquoise-blue, the whole shell roughly spattered with white. The 

 white spots are composed of a soft calcareous substance, apparently 

 deposited on the surface of the shell after its complete formation : they 

 are raised, and look like snow-flakes, and when the egg is fresh laid 



VOL. II. 1} 



