CHAPTER III 



The Houtou ranks high in beauty amongst the 

 birds of Demerara — his whole body is green, with 

 a bluish cast in the wings and tail; his crown, 

 which he erects at pleasure, consists of black in 

 the centre, surrounded with lovely blue of two dif- 

 ferent shades: he has a triangular black spot, 

 edged with blue, behind the eye extending to the 

 ear ; and on his breast a sable tuft, consisting of 

 nine feathers edged also with blue. This bird 

 seems to suppose that its beauty can be increased 

 by trimming the tail, which undergoes the same 

 operation as our hair in a barber's shop, only 

 with this difference, that it uses its own beak, 

 which is serrated, in lieu of a pair of scissors ; as 

 soon as his tail is full grown, he begins about an 

 inch from the extremity of the two longest 

 feathers in it, and cuts away the web on both sides 

 of the shaft, making a gap about an inch long: 

 both male and female Adonise their tails in this 

 manner, which gives them a remarkable appear- 

 ance amongst all other birds. While we consider 

 the tail of the houtou blemished and defective, 

 were he to come amongst us, he would probably 

 consider our heads, cropped and bald, in no better 

 light. He who wishes to observe this handsome 

 bird in his native haunts, must be in the forest at 

 the morning's dawn. The houtou shuns the so- 

 ciety of man : the plantations and cultivated parts 



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