148 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



the remaining two, which are the middle ones, are 

 black, and an inch shorter than the others. His 

 bill is sulphur colour; all the rest of the body 

 black, with here and there shades of brown. He 

 has five or six long narrow black feathers on the 

 back of his head, which he erects at pleasure. 



There is one more species of cassique in Deme- 

 rara, which always prefers the forests to the culti- 

 vated parts. Ilis economy is the same as that of 

 the other cassiques. He is rather smaller than 

 the last described bird. His body is greenish, and 

 his tail and rump paler than those of the former. 

 Half of his beak is red. 



You would not be long in the forests of Deme- 

 rara without noticing the Woodpeckers. You meet 

 with them feeding at all hours of the day. Well 

 may they do so. Were they to follow the exam- 

 ple of most of the other birds, and only feed in the 

 morning and evening, they would be often on 

 short allowance, for they sometimes have to la- 

 bour three or four hours at the tree before they 

 get to their food. The sound which the largest 

 kind makes in hammering against the barl^ of the 

 tree, is so loud, that you would never suppose it 

 to proceed from the efforts of a bird. You would 

 take it to be the woodman, with his axe, trying by 

 a sturdy blow, often repeated, whether the tree 

 were sound or not. There are fourteen species 

 here ; the largest the size of a magpie, the smallest 

 no bigger than the wren. They are all beautiful ; 

 and the greater part of them have their heads 

 ornamented with a fine crest, movable at pleasure. 



It is said, if you once give a dog a bad name, 

 whether innocent or guilty, he never loses it. It 



