1 88 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



man. This, with the roar of the red baboon and the celestial 

 theme of the Quadrille Bird, forms the trilogy most cherished 

 in our memory of all the Guiana sounds. 



We are listening to the call of the Gold or Greenheart 

 Bird, 115 another member of the Cotingas or Chatterers, 

 which is as remarkable for its voice as it is lacking in brilliant 

 colors. Loud as the call is, it is very ventriloquil and difficult 

 to locate. When directly beneath the sound it seems to 

 come from the tops of the highest trees, a hundred feet up, 

 whereas in all probability the bird is not more than twenty- 

 five feet above our heads. It sits motionless but the violence 

 of its utterance makes the whole branch vibrate. We soon 

 learn that to search and find the bird directly is impossible, 

 but by letting the eyes take in as large a field as possible, 

 the vibration from the vocal effort is easily discernible. 



The male Goldbird is uniformly ashy or slate-colored, 

 slightly darker above, very Solitaire-like both in color and 

 size. The female is distinguished by a shade of rufous on the 

 wing-coverts and the tips of the flight feathers. With such 

 coloring it is not strange that the bird becomes invisible amid 

 the dark shadows of the lower branches. 



The natives know this bird as the Pe-pe-yo from its call, 

 and Goldbird from the fact that all pork-knockers believe 

 it is never found far from deposits of gold; while the theory 

 that it usually utters its call from a greenheart tree accounts 

 for its third name. 



Its note is typical of our American tropics, where highly 

 developed song is rare, but single loud, metallic or liquid 

 syllables are the rule. The bird has two introductory 

 phrases which heretofore seem to have escaped the notice of 

 observers. Indeed , until one noticed the invariable sequence 

 of the two sets of notes, it would never be suspected that they 

 proceeded from the same bird. The introductory phrases 

 are low and muffled and yet have considerable carrying power. 



