()HM'I'II()I.()(,I( AI. I)IS(()\'1:HM'S 221 



overlaid larger spots of greyish purple and lilac. Tlie ineas- 

 iirements were 2(5. .) x ]9 mm. 



GUIANA TYRANTLE'r 



TyraniUHcus accr (Sah. ik (iod.) 



1 had returned front a hai'd walk in search of trumpeter 

 chicks — in vain, and liad been strai(»htway recompensed by 

 the discovery of tlie nest of a sunhittern, and tlie Hat ])lat- 

 form and sinole white egg of a splendid pigeon. The day's 

 work seemed ended, and 1 lay on my l)ack w^aiting for the 

 dugout to return from a trip up river. Idly 1 watched a 

 tiny bird — a flycatcher — flitting a})out high overhead, in the 

 very summit of a mango tree. Presently it dived into a 

 bunch of moss, one of a dozen on some dead branches, but 

 did not immediately appear again. I waited and still it 

 remained invisible. From a condition of lazy inattentive- 

 ness, I sat up, imbued with concentrated interest, and felt 

 for mv glasses, mv eves never leaving the tuft of moss. The 

 closest scrutiny revealed nothing, and I w^as half tempted 

 to believe that the bird had ehided me. But the insatiable, 

 inexplicable will-to-learn, the fluid life, as Bergson would 

 have it, overcame the sloth of the material body, and up I 

 went. I climbed swiftly, so that I might keej) beyond the 

 ever-increasing area of irate ants, and finally touched the 

 branch. ]My flycatcher shot out, and raising his diminutive 

 crest, scolded me roundlv for mv unw^arranted intrusion. 

 The nest w^as most ingeniously hidden and I coidd not find 

 the entrance until I had carried it to the ground and exam- 

 ined it carefullv. The owner w^as a Guiana tvrantlet, one 

 of the most inconspicuous of his great flycatcher family, and 

 one of the smallest, less than four inches in length. He was 

 olive and grey, with his wing feathers touched with yellow; 

 and his voice was sharp, unmelodious, and several sizes too 

 large. 



