WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 147 



His beak is the colour of sulphur, but it fades in 

 death, and requires the same operation as the bill 

 of the toucan to make' it keep its colours. Up the 

 rivers, in the interior, there is another cassique, 

 nearly the same size, and of the same habits, 

 though not gifted with its powers of imitation. 

 Except in breeding time you will see hundreds 

 of them retiring to roost, amongst the moca- 

 moca-trees and low shrubs on the banks of the 

 Demerara, after you pass the first island. They 

 are not common on the sea-coast. The rump 

 of this cassique is a flaming scarlet. All the 

 rest of the body is a rich glossy black. His 

 bill is sulphur colour. You may often see num- 

 bers of this species weaving their pendu- 

 lous nests on one side of a tree, while numbers of 

 the other species are busy in forming theirs on 

 the other side of the same tree. Though such near 

 neighbours, the females are never observed to kick 

 up a row, or come to blows ! 



Another species of cassique, as large as a crow, 

 is very common in the plantations. In the morn- 

 ing, he generally repairs to a large tree, and there, 

 with his tail spread over his back, and shaking 

 his lowered wings, he produces notes, which 

 though they cannot be said to amount to a song, 

 still have something very sweet and pleasing in 

 them. He makes his nest in the same farm as the 

 other cassiques. It is above four feet long; and 

 when you pass under the tree, which often con- 

 tains fifty or sixty of them, you cannot help stop- 

 ping to admire them as they wave to and fro, the 

 sport of every storm and breeze. The rump is 

 chestnut ; ten feathers of the tail are a fine yellow, 



