SEQUELS 281 



up, saw me, shifted a few feet farther off and 

 perched full of curiosity, craning her neck and 

 looking first with one eye, then the other. Now 

 the male began a content song. With all possible 

 variations of his few and simple tones, on a low 

 and very sweet timbre, he belied his unoscine 

 perch in the tree of bird life, and sang to himself. 

 Now and then he was drowned out by the shrill- 

 ing of cicadas, hut it was a delightful serenade, 

 and he seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. A 

 few days before, I had made a careful study of 

 the syrinx of this bird, whom we may call rather 

 euphoniously Trogonurus curucui, and had been 

 struck by the simplicity both of muscles and 

 bones. Now, having summoned his mate in regu- 

 lar accents, there followed this unexpected whis- 

 per song. It recalled similar melodies sung by 

 pheasants and Himalayan partridges, usually 

 after they had gone to roost. 



Once the female swooped after an insect, and 

 in the midst of one of the sweetest passages of 

 the male trogon, a green grasshopper shifted his 

 position. He was only two inches away from the 

 singer, and all this time had been hidden by his 

 chlorophyll-hued veil. And now the trogon 

 fairly fell off the branch, seizing the insect al- 



