186 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



male and female Adonise their tails in this manner, which 

 gives them a remarkable appearance 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 society of man: the plantations and 

 cultivated parts are too much disturbed to engage it to 

 settle there ; the thick and gloomy forests are the places 

 preferred by the solitary houtou. In those far-extending 

 wilds, about daybreak, you hear him articulate, in a dis- 

 tinct and mournful tone, " Houtou, houtou." Move cautious 

 on to where the sound proceeds from, and you will see him 

 sitting in the underwood, about a couple of yards from the 

 ground, his tail moving up and down every time he articu- 

 lates " houtou." He lives on insects and the berries amongst 

 the underwood, and very rarely is seen in the lofty trees, 

 except the bastard-siloabali tree, the fruit of which is grate- 

 ful to him. He makes no nest, but rears his young in a 

 hole in the sand, generally on the side of a hill. 



While in quest of the houtou, you will now and then 

 fall in with the Jay of Guiana, called by the Indians 

 Ibibirou. Its forehead is black, the rest of the head white ; 

 the throat and breast like the English magpie : about an 

 inch of the extremity of the tail is white, the other part of 

 it, together with the back and wings, a greyish changing 

 purple ; the belly is white : there are generally six or eight 

 of them in company ; they are shy and garrulous, and tarry 

 a very short time in one place ; they are never seen in the 

 cultivated parts. 



Through the whole extent of the forest, chiefly from 

 sunrise till nine o'clock in the morning, you hear a sound 

 of " Wow, wow, wow, wow." This is the bird called Boclora 



