476 THE UMBRELLA-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 for 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 

 mirnbeu, 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 



