WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 195 



red feathers at the knee. The half red and half black 

 species is the scarcest. There is a creek in the Demerara 

 called Camouni. About ten minutes from the mouth, you 

 see a common-sized fig-tree on your right hand, as you 

 ascend, hanging over water ; it bears a very small fig twice 

 a year. When its fruit is ripe, this manikin is on the tree 

 from morn till eve. 



On all the ripe fig-trees in the forest you see the bird 

 called the small Tiger-bird. Like some of our belles and 

 dandies, it has a gaudy vest to veil an ill-shaped body : the 

 throat, and part of the head, are a bright red ; the breast 

 and belly have black spots on a yellow ground ; the wings 

 are a dark green, black, and white ; and the rump and 

 tail black and green. Like the manikin, it has no song : 

 it depends solely upon a showy garment for admiration. 



Devoid, too, of song, and in a still superber garb, the 

 Yawaraciri comes to feed on the same tree. It has a bar 

 like black velvet from the eyes to the beak ; its legs are 

 yellow ; its throat, wings, and tail black ; all the rest of the 

 body a charming blue. Chiefly in the dry savannas, and 

 here and there accidentally in the forest, you see a songless 

 yawaraciri still lovelier than the last : his crown is whitish 

 blue, arrayed like a coat of mail : his tail is black, his wings 

 blacK and yellow ; legs red ; and the whole body a glossy 

 blue. Whilst roving through the forest, ever and anon 

 you see individuals of the wren species, busy amongst the 

 fallen leaves, or seeking insects at the roots of the trees. 



Here, too, you find six or seven species of small birds* 

 whose backs appear to be overloaded with silky plumage, 

 One of these, with a chestnut breast, smoke-coloured backs 

 red tail, white feathers like horns on his head, and white 

 narrow-pointed feather under the jaw, feeds entirely upon 

 ants. When a nest of large, light, brown ants emigrates, 

 one following the other in meandering lines above a mile 



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