438 TRINIDAD. 



In the woods, curiosity alone will impel one to ascertain the 

 cause of a singular noise which can be ascribed to a bird, only 

 on sight ; it is made by the casse-noisette, or nut-cracker (Pipra 

 Ghttturalis). These small manikins crowded on a shrub, are 

 continually on leap from the branches to the ground, and from the 

 ground to the branches. During these short passages of a few 

 feet, they emit that noise, which is a short and sharp rolling pro- 

 duced with the aid of their bills. So great an uproar on the part 

 of such small birds is not easily understood, and less so their end 

 in producing it ; for, the ordinary note or call uttered by them 

 under all other circumstances, has in it nothing particular. At 

 those periods, when joy alone seems to move them, they remove 

 from the ground everything which lies on it, so as to make a 

 perfect clearance of a small spot which is always circular. This is 

 again an enigma ; and yet this manoeuvre they will continue for 

 hours entire. 



There is a bird, the song of which announces man's dwelling, 

 viz., the Troglodytes Eudon, which is a wren, but is called here 

 rossignol. Though no rival of the European night songster, yet it 

 is the only one among our birds that may induce one to think 

 there must be a charm in listening to a bird pouring forth the 

 harmony of its notes. However, it is respected much less for its 

 melody than for its habits, which attach it to our dwellings : a sort 

 of veneration is even felt for the little creature, which is shown by 

 its very popular name, for it is called " Oiseau du Bon-Dieu," or 

 God's bird. Several nocturnal birds of prey disturb the stillness 

 of night by their shrieks, and in those shrieks there is here, as 

 everywhere else, something so dismally lugubrious as to cause the 

 unfortunate to shudder in his hut ; for, to him they are ominous 

 of death. But it is rather curious that a diurnal bird, the trinite 

 (Cuculus Naevius), sometimes makes its cry to be heard during 

 the night : whilst its companions of the day are in deep repose, it 

 wakes on the branch, and each hour gives forth its notes, which 

 night renders querulous, but which in turn, make night more 

 mournful still. 



Some other particulars may be remarked in the call of our 

 birds ; but as a characteristic of this point of ornithology, they 

 may be said to whistle rather than sing, whilst some of them 

 produce with their bill singular noises. Thus our cassique, by 



