HOMKS Ol' TOICANS 189 



Two (lays latt'i- one of the hii'ds s])ent coiisiderahlc time 

 in the nest, appearin<>" only when its mate approaehed, xVt 

 such times she (thus sexed l)y eoni'tesy) sat with projeeting 

 hill, and ehattered in low, raueous aeeents, or aeee})ted offer- 

 ings in the shape of berries of sorts from her mate's hill. 

 A week later she seemed even more preoeeupied and seldom 

 was seen outside. The male now flew direet to the hole and 

 fed her as she sat inside the nest. ^Vhen within hearing he 

 oeeasionally uttered a low eieada-like note, repeated three 

 times, dciceeda-dcxicccda-deicceda, given with the })ill either 

 open or shut. 



The tree was a favorite perching place foi- hirds of 

 many species and besides the nest of the toucans, two other 

 holes were occupied, both by red-fronted woodpeckers {Mel- 

 anerpes ruhrifrans), whose brilliant black and scarlet forms 

 flashed about the tree all day, or clung like dark shadows 

 to the side of the whitened bole. One of the woodpeckers' 

 nests was only two feet above that of the toucans. 



Two weeks after the discovery of the birds' nesting ac- 

 tivities we felled the tree. It was an all-day job, and it took 

 our arboreal, all but quadrumanous negro boy Sam several 

 hom-s to ascend to the first branch and attach a guy rope. 

 His method of climbing was unique and efl'ective, but most 

 laborious. He made two loose slip nooses about the trunk 

 of the tree, and a small hanging loop in each in which he 

 put his feet. With a guy rope tied to his belt, he put his 

 full weight on one loop, and clasping the trunk with one 

 arm, he hitched the second rope up a foot or two and shifted 

 his weight to its loop, the force of the oblique downward pull 

 holding the noose in place on the trunk. Then rope number 

 one had to be pulled and jerked up to the level of the sec- 

 ond. And so, foot bv foot, this wonderfully muscled and 

 persistent youth hitched and caterpillared his way over sixty 

 feet upward to the lowest branch, guyed it and slid do^vll. 



The iron quality of the seasoned trunk turned the edge 

 of two axes, but at last the topmost branch, one hundred 



