^6 THE UMERELLA-BIRD. 



black, dotted all over with small white feathers. Having a 

 communication with the palate, it enables the bird to utter 

 these loud clear sounds. When thus employed, and filled 

 with air, it looks like a spire ; when empty, it becomes pen- 

 dulous. Though, like most of its tribe, it is sometimes seen 

 in flocks, it never feeds with other species of cotingas. 



The witty Sydney Smith, remarking on the account Water- 

 ton gives of the campanero, observes: "This single bird then 

 has a voice of more power than the belfry of a cathedral ring- 

 ing for a new dean. It is impossible to contradict a gentle- 

 man who has been in the forests of Cayenne ; but we are de- 

 termined, as soon as a campanero is brought to England, 

 to make him toll in a public place, and have the distance 

 measured." 



Had the witty dean been aware of the fact — stated by the 

 astronomer and aeronaut, Mr. Glaisher — that a female voice is 

 heard a mile further than that of the most hirsute and sturdy 

 ''tar," he might have been less sceptical of the powers of the 

 little cotinga to make itself heard foi- the distance of three 

 miles through the pure and calm air of the tropics. 



THE UMBRELLA, OR FIFE-BIRD. 



In the yearly submerged gapo forests and the plains of the 

 Upper Amazon, a singularly deep and long-sustained flute- 

 like sound is often heard. It might be supposed that it was 

 produced by the pan-pipes used by the natives of that region. 

 It is, however, the note of a bird, named by the Indians uira 

 ruimheit, or fife-bird, from the peculiar tone of its voice. It 

 is, from the ornament on its head — consisting of a crest, with 

 long curved hairy feathers, having long bare quills, which, 

 when raised, spread themselves out in the form of a fringed 



