146 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



dance for her aerial tribes. When his repast is 

 over, he returns to man, and pays the little tribute 

 which he owes him for his protection ; he takes his 

 station on a tree close to his house ; and there, for 

 hours together, pours forth a succession of imi- 

 tative notes. His own song is sweet, but very- 

 short. If a toucan be yelping in the neighbour- 

 hood, he drops it, and imitates him. Then he will 

 amuse his protector with the cries of the ditferent 

 species of the woodpecker; and when the sheep 

 bleat, he will distinctly answer them. Then comes 

 his own song again; and if a puppy-dog, or a 

 Guinea-fowl interrupt him, he takes them off ad- 

 mirably, and by his different gestures during the 

 time, j^ou would conclude that he enjoj^s the sport. 



The cassique is gregarious, and imitates any 

 sound he hears with such exactness, that he goes 

 by no other name than that of Mocking-bird 

 amongst the colonists. 



At breeding time, a number of these pretty chor- 

 isters resort to a tree near the planter's house, 

 and from its outside branches weave their pen- 

 dulous nests. So conscious do they seem that they 

 never give offence, and so little suspicious are they 

 of recei\ang any injury from man, that they will 

 choose a tree within forty yards of his house, and 

 occupy the branches so low down, that he may 

 peep into the nests. A tree in Waratilla creek af- 

 fords a proof of this. 



The proportions of the cassique are so fine, that 

 he may be said to be a model of s}inmetry in or- 

 nitholog;s^ On each wing he has a bright yellow 

 spot, and his rump, belly, and half the tail, are of 

 the same colour. All the rest of the body is black. 



