210 THE ROCK-MANAKIW. 



as throughout the rest of our passage on the river, and 

 studied their manners. 



The gallitos, or rock-manakins, are sold at Pararuma in 

 pretty little cages made of the footstalks of palm-leaves. 

 These birds are infinitely more rare on the banks of the Ori- 

 noco, and in the north and west of equinoctial America, than 

 in French Guiana. They have hitherto been found only near 

 the Mission of Encaramada, and in the Eaudales or cataracts 

 of Maypures. I say expressly in the cataracts, because 

 the gallitos choose for their habitual dwelling the hollows of 

 the little granitic rocks that cross the Orinoco and form 

 such numerous cascades. "We sometimes saw them appear 

 in the morning in the midst of the foam of the river, calling 

 their females, and fighting in the manner of our cocks, 

 folding the double moveable crest that decorates the crown 

 of the head. As the Indians very rarely take the full-grown 

 gallitos, and those males only are valued in Europe, which 

 from the third year have beautiful saffron-coloured plumage, 

 purchasers should be on their guard not to confound young 

 females with young males. Both the male and female 

 gallitos are of an olive-brown; but the polio, or young male, 

 is distinguishable at the earliest age, by its size and its 

 yellow feet. After the third year the plumage of the males 

 assumes a beautiful saffron tint; but the female remains 

 always of a dull dusky brown colour, with yellow only on 

 the wing-coverts and tips of the wings.* To preserve in 

 our collections the fine tint of the plumage of a male and 

 full-grown rock-manakin, it must not be exposed to the 

 light. This tint grows pale more easy than in the other 

 genera of the passerine order. The young males, as in most 

 other birds, have the plumage or livery of their mother. 

 1 am surprised to see that so skilful a naturalist as Le 

 Vaillant t can doubt whether the females always remain of 

 a dusky olive tint. The Indians of the Eaudales all assured 

 me that they had never seen a saffron-coloured female. 



Among the monkeys, brought by the Indians to the fair 

 of Pararuma, we distinguished several varieties of the sai^ 



* Especially the part which ornithologists call the carpus. 



f Oiseaux de Paradis, vol. ii, p. 61. 

 J Simia capucina, (the capuchin monkey). 



