A GOLD MINE IN THE WILDERNESS. 173 



They were tame and allowed us to approach within eight 

 or ten feet before flying to their alternate perches. Their 

 feet are small and weak and they have a hunched up look 

 as they perch in wait, turning the head rapidly in every 

 direction and now and then swooping like a flash after some 

 tiny insect, engulfing it with a loud snap of the mandibles. 

 Their call-note is a sharp, repeated pip.' pip! pi/).' pip.' 



These birds welcome the clearing, as it means an increased 

 supply of insect food. They learn the value even of the 

 opening made by the fall of a single tree deep in the jungle, 

 and here and elsewhere we noticed that a single pair of Jaca- 

 mars would keep bus}- day after day in the patch of sun- 

 light let in by the death of some forest giant. Jacamars 

 form a rather compact group of some twenty species; in 

 habit like Flycatchers; in appearance and nest like King- 

 fishers, but in structure more closely related to Toucans and 

 Woodpeckers. 



P^ven in the short time which we spent at Hoorie we learned 

 to expect a regular daily movement on the part of many of 

 the birds. Karly each morning a flock of about a dozen 

 splendid Jays worked slowly around the edge of the clearing, 

 at last disappearing behind the bungalow into the woods. 

 In the north this would not be an unusual sight, but it must 

 be remembered that members of the Jay family, like the 

 Wood Warblers, are rarely seen in the tropics. Crows and 

 Ravens are entirely absent from South America, and but two 

 species of Jays find their way into British (Juiana. 



Our Hoorie birds were Lavender Jays li;1 and although so 

 far from the home of their family they were no whit the less 

 Jay-like. They constantly hailed each other with a varied 

 vocabulary of harsh cries and calls, and now and then held 

 a morsel of food between the toes and pounded it vigorously. 

 They flapped but seldom, passing with short sailing flights 

 from branch to branch not far from the ground. 



