THE KING OF THE WOODS. 33 



ers ; but he only laughed at them and said " Toh ! " 

 which is the Maya word for " go along." 



And this was the Tobago representative of the 

 Mexican bird who had scared me so badly, and whose 

 near relative I had often seen in the genotes of Yuca- 

 tan ! He bore a different name here, and a more 

 dignified, being known as the King of the Woods. 

 He sat upon the branch and gave out at intervals his 

 sepulchral cry ; but I feared him no longer, my ghost 

 was laid, the dread jumbie had resolved itself into a 

 phantom — as all our fears may do if we will but fight 

 them and drive them to the wall. 



This King of the Woods is a curious bird, known 

 to the naturalists as the Prionites Bahammensis. It 

 is about seventeen inches in length, with eighteen 

 inches stretch of wing, and has a soft, silky plumage 

 of green and chestnut. It has a crimson iris, a very 

 pretty crest, and is altogether an attractive but modest- 

 appearing bird. 



Its peculiar feature is the tail, which consists of 

 two long feathers, the shafts or barbs of which are 

 entirely divested of their laminae or barbules, except 

 at the tips, where a spatulate inch or so only remains. 

 Some naturalists hold that the bird comes honestly by 

 this peculiar feather in a natural way, and others that 

 it strips the barbules away after it has got its growth. 



Its plumage is at its best in the springtime, when 

 the spatulate feathers are perfect ; but after the sum- 

 mer molting these disappear, and can not be seen 

 from October to March. It digs a hole in a marl 

 bank from five to ten feet deep, and there lays three 



