628 



The Sparrow-like Birds 



plumes are white, but in the others they are black. This species, which ranges 

 from Guiana and central Brazil through Amazonia to eastern Ecuador and 

 Bolivia, is about eighteen inches long and is described as a shy bird, keeping 

 to the upper branches of the high forest trees, where it seeks its food of fruits. 

 It has a loud, piping note, whence it is called by the native Indians the Fife- 

 bird. The nest, according to Bates and others, is a platform of small branches 

 placed in the top of a tall tree, and the eggs pure white and but four in number. 

 In western Ecuador occurs an allied species (C. penduliger} which is but sixteen 

 inches long, yet has the lappet of the extreme length above mentioned. The 



FIG. 183. Umbrella-bird, Cephalopterus ornatus. 



remaining species (C. glabricollis} of Central America from Costa Rica to Panama 

 is of the same length as the last, but has the whole front of the neck and breast 

 bare of feathers, as is the throat wattle. In color the bare skin is reddish orange, 

 that of the base of the naked wattle bright red. 



The Bell-birds (Chasmorhynchus}, which take their common appellation 

 from their loud, resonant notes, resembling, it is said, the sound of a clear-ringing 

 bell, or that produced by a blacksmith when he strikes a piece of steel on an anvil, 

 are rather large birds, ten or more inches long, with long, pointed wings and 

 short, strong toes. In color two of the four known species are snow-white and 

 unspotted, that of the others being clear rufous-chestnut with the head and 

 neck pure white, or pure white with the wings black. 



The Snow-white Bell-bird (C. niveus) of Guiana and Venezuela is distin- 

 guished at once by the presence of a slender, erectile, black caruncle at the base 

 of the upper mandible, this being nearly three inches long and sparsely covered 



