166 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



bird, has nothing in it that can inform or 

 entertain ; it rather excites a longing, which 

 it is impossible for words to satisfy. Natural- 

 ists, indeed, have endeavoured to satisfy this 



which may be called toucanets. The largest of the first 

 species frequents the mangrove trees on the sea-coast. 

 He is never seen in the interior till yon reach Macou- 

 shia, where he is found in the neighbourhood of the 

 river Tacatore. The other two species are very com- 

 mon. They feed entirely on the fruits of the forest, and, 

 though of the pie kind, never kill the young of ether 

 birds, or touch carrion. They are very noisy in rainy 

 weather. The sound which the bouradi or the larger 

 makes, is like the clear yelping of a puppy dog, and you 

 fancy he says " pia-po-o-co," and thus the South Ameri- 

 ean Spaniards call him piapoco. All the toucanets feed 

 on the same trees on which the toucan feeds, and every 

 species of this family, of enormous bill, lays its eggs in 

 the hollow trees. They are social, but not gregarious. 

 You may sometimes see eight or ten in company, and 

 from this you may suppose they are gregarious; but 

 upon closer examination, you will find it has only been 

 a dinner party, which breaks up and disperses towards 

 roosting time. The flight of the toucan is by jerks; in 

 the action of flying it seems incommoded by its huge 

 dispropr.-tioned bill ; if the extraordinary form and size 

 of the bill expose the toucan to ridicule, its colours make 

 it amends. 



The houtou ranks high in beauty amongst the birds of 

 Demerara ; his whole body is green, with a bluish cast 

 in the wings and tail; his crane, which he erects at 

 pleasure, consists of black in the centre, surrounded with 

 lovely blue of two different shades ; he has a triangular 

 black spot, edged with blue, behind the eye, extending 

 to the ear; and on his breast a sable tuft, consisting of 

 nine feathers edged also with blue. This bird seems to 

 suppose that its beauty can be increased by trimming the 

 tail, which undergoes the same operation as our hair in 

 a barber's shop, only with this difference, that it uses its 

 own beak, which is serrated, in lieu of a pair of scissors ; 

 as soon as his tail is full grown, he begins about an inch 

 from the extremity of the two largest feathers in it, and 

 cuts away the web on both sides of the shaft, making a gap 

 about an inch long. Both male and female Adonise their 

 tails in this manner, which gives them a remarkable 

 appearance amongst other birds. The thick and gloomy 

 forests are the places preferred by the houtou. In those 

 far-extending wilds, about day-break, you hear him 

 articulate, in a distinct and mournful tone, " houtou, 

 houtou." Move cautiously on where the sound proceeds 

 from, and you will see him sitting in the underwood, 

 and very rarely is he seen in the lofty trees, except the 

 bastard siloaboli tree, the fruit of which is grateful to 

 him. He makes no nest, but rears his young in a hole 

 in the sand, generally on the side of a hill. 



The cassique, in size, is larger than the starling; he 

 covets the society of man, but disdains to live by his 

 labours. When nature calls for support, he repairs to 

 the neighbouring forest, and there partakes of the store 

 of fruits and seeds which she has produced for her aerial 

 tribes. When his repast is over, he returns to man, 

 and pays the little tribute which he owes him for his 

 protection ; he takes his station on a tree close to his 

 house, and there for hours together pours forth a succes- 

 sion of imitative notes. His own song is sweet, but very 

 short. If a toucan be yelping in the neighbourhood, he 

 drops it, and imitates him. Then he will amuse his 

 protector with the cries of different species of the wood- 

 pecker; and when the sheep bleat, he will distinctly 

 imitate them. Then comes his own song again, and if 

 a puppy dog or a guinea-fowl interrupt him, he takes 

 them off admirably; and by his different gestures during 

 the time, you would conclude that he enjoys the sport. 



desire by coloured prints ; but, beside that 

 these at best give only a faint resemblance of 

 nature, and are a very indifferent kind of 

 painting, the bird itself has a thousand beau- 



The cassique is gregarious, and imitates any sound he 

 hears with such exactness, that he goes by no other name 

 than that of mocking-bird amongst the colonists. At 

 breeding time, a number of these pretty choristers re- 

 sort to a tree near the planter's house, and from its out- 

 side branches weave their pendulous nests. So conscious 

 do they seem that they never give offence, and so little 

 suspicious are they of receiving any injury from man, 

 that they will choose a tree within forty yards from his 

 house, and occupy the branches so low down that he 

 may peep into the nests. The proportions of the cas- 

 sique are so fine, that he may be said to be a model of 

 symmetry in ornithology. On each wing he has a 

 bright yellow spot, and his rump, belly, and half the tail, 

 are of the same colour. All the rest of the body is 

 black. His beak is the colour of sulphur, but it fades in 

 death, and requires the same operation as the bill of the 

 toucan to make it keep its colours. 



You would not be long in the forests of Demerara 

 without noticing the woodpeckers. You may meet 

 with them feeding at all hours of the day. Well may 

 they do so. Were they to follow the example of most 

 of the other birds, and only feed in the morning and 

 evening, they would be often on short allowance, for 

 they sometimes have to labour three or four hours at the 

 tree before they get at the food. The sound which the 

 largest kind makes in hammering against the bark of 

 the tree, is so loud, that you would never suppose it to 

 proceed from the efforts of a bird. You would take it 

 to be the woodman, with his axe, trying, by a sturdy 

 blow often repeated, whether the tree was sound or not. 

 There are fourteen species here; the largest the size ol 

 a magpie, the smallest not bigger than the wren. They 

 are all beautiful, and the greater part of them have theii 

 heads ornamented with a fine crest, movable at pleasure. 

 It is said if you once give a dog a bad name, whether 

 innocent or guilty, he never loses it. It sticks close to 

 him wherever he goes. He has many a kick and many 

 a blow to bear on account of it, and there is nobody to 

 stand up for him. The woodpecker is little better oti. 

 The proprietors of woods in Europe have long accused 

 him of injuring their timber, by boring holes in it, and 

 letting in the water, which soon rots it. The colonists 

 in America have the same complaints against him. 

 Had he the power of speech, he could soon make a de- 

 fence. " Mighty lords of the woods," he would say to 

 man, " why do you wrongfully accuse me ? 'Why do you 

 hunt me up and down to death for an imaginary offence ? 

 I have never spoiled a leaf of your property, much less 

 your wood. Your merciless shot strikes me at the very 

 time I am doing you a service. But your shortsighted- 

 ness will not let you see it, or your pride is above 

 examining closely the actions of so insignificant a little 

 jird as I am. If there be that spark of feeling in yonr 

 jreast, which they say man possesses, or ought to possess, 

 above all other animals, do a poor injured creature a 

 ittle kindness, and watch me in your woods only for 

 one day. I never wormed your healthy trees. I should 

 perish for want in the attempt. The sound bark would 

 easily resist the force of my bill ; and were I even tc 

 pierce thrtfugh it, there would be nothing inside that 1 

 ;ould fancy, or my stomach digest. I often visit them, 

 t is true, but a knock or two convinces me that I must 

 go else\vhere for support ; and were you to listen atten- 

 ively to the sound which my bill causes, you would 

 uiow whether I am upon a healthy or an unhealthy tree. 

 Wood and bark are not my food. 1 live entirely upon 

 he insects which have already formed a lodgement in 

 he distempered tree. When the sound informs me that 



