214 COTINGA AND TANAGER. 



escape our powers of vision : but by no means that 

 of this keen-sighted bird, for the fly is no sooner 

 seen than caught, and brought back with equal rapi- 

 dity to the twig on which the bird was before perched. 

 The clearness of sight in birds is indeed prodigious, 

 and has been calculated by an eminent naturalist, 

 (Lacepede), to be nine times more extensive than 

 that of the farthest-sighted man. 



The foreign varieties of this bird are, many of 

 them, of exquisite beauty in plumage, and elegance 

 in form; we may mention for example, the Paradise 

 Fly-catcher. 



Of the fourth genus, (the Cotingas,) we have but 

 one species in England, and that but rarely seen, the 

 Silk-tail, or Waxen Chatterer, from the secondary 

 quills of the wings being ornamented with a flat 

 horny substance, of a bright vermillion colour, look- 

 ing like red sealing-wax. In foreign countries, 

 however, there are many varieties, amongst others, 

 the singular Bell-bird, of which we have spoken. 

 It is about the size of a Jay, of a pure white, 

 with nothing remarkable in its appearance, except 

 that from the junction of the forehead and base 

 of the beak, a long fleshy sort of slender wattle 

 hangs down; the bird has, however, the power, 

 either by filling it with air, or exciting the muscles, 

 of rendering it quite stiff, when it sticks up like a 

 horn of about two inches in length. We have al- 

 luded to the probability of this odd appendage, in 

 some way or other, being the cause of the deep 

 bell-toned sound of its note, the air it contains pro- 

 bably contributing to its utterance. 



Of the Tanagras (Table VIL, p. 13,) we have not 



