Umbrella-birds 627 



and feet are of moderate size, the crest recumbent, and the shortened wing has 

 the terminal portion of the fourth primary modified into a thickened, horny 

 process; the two brilliantly beautiful species are natives of Guiana, Ecuador, 

 and upper Amazonia. In P. nigricollis, a bird eight and a half inches long, 

 the plumage above is velvety black, the wings brown, and the crested crown, 

 rump, and upper tail-coverts, tail, and under parts bright scarlet, relieved on 

 the tail by a broad black tip and on the throat by velvety black. The female 

 is yellowish olive-brown, tinged with reddish and duller scarlet below. 



Typical Cotingas. In the typical Cotingas (Cotingina), of which there are 

 a dozen genera and about forty species, the plumage vies in brilliancy and beauty 

 with some of the most gorgeous of Old World birds, not excepting the famed 

 Birds-of-Paradise. They are mostly between six and ten inches in length, with 

 slender tarsi and feet and are strictly arboreal in habit. They are natives for 

 the most part of the dense forests of northern South America and Brazil, very 

 few extending into Central America. Of those reaching Costa Rica, mention 

 may be made of the Holy Ghost Bird (Carpodectes nitidus), which Dr. Rich- 

 mond found to be a common species on the Rio Frio. This species is snow-white 

 in color, or with a slight wash of bluish on the back, and has the bill plumbeous 

 and the feet black; the whole length is ten inches. They were found by Rich- 

 mond to be gorging themselves with fruits from a heavily laden tree near the 

 edge of a forest, and were quite silent at the time. 



As examples of the coloration of the true Cotingas we may mention briefly 

 the Blue Cotinga (Cotinga ccerulea), the male of which is bright ultramarine- 

 blue above and rich reddish purple beneath, the wings and tail being black; 

 the female is brownish black squamated and spotted with buffy. The closely 

 related Banded Cotinga (C. cincta) of southeastern Brazil is similar to the last, 

 but has a narrow band of bright blue through the reddish purple of the breast. 



Umbrella-birds. The final group (GymnoderincR) contains, at least as 

 regards color and ornamental appendages, some of the most remarkable mem- 

 bers of the whole family. Among these we may first mention the Umbrella- 

 birds (Cephalopterus\ of which three species are known. All are provided 

 with a remarkable crest composed of long, slender feathers rising from a con- 

 tractile skin on the top of the head, and when erected hang as elegant drooping 

 plumes over much of the bill, in fact almost hiding it; the bases of the plumes 

 are white in one species and when the crest is deflected, show as a compact 

 white mass surmounted by the dense, hairy plumes. But this is not all in the 

 way of curious ornamentation. The sides of the neck are naked, but springing 

 from the loose skin of the throat is a cylindrical process of the size of a goose- 

 quill, and two inches or more in length, which in two of the species is covered 

 to its extreme tip with long, loose feathers, thus producing a beautiful cylindrical 

 plume or lappet which reaches an extreme length of thirteen inches in one species, 

 though ordinarily not exceeding six inches. In color these birds are all uniform 

 black throughout, with greenish or metallic reflections on the crest, back, and 

 throat wattle, the females being brownish black, with but slightly developed 

 throat plumes. In the best-known species (C. ornatus] the stems of the head 



