290 Mr. Percy R. Lowe : 



jungle to aiiotlier_, where it was quite impossible to follow 

 them. This they only did at sunrise and sundown, when 

 they proclaimed tlieir presence by tlieir discordant choruses. 



In southern Mexico, in the dense forests which border 

 the smaller tributaries of the Coatzacoalcos, I have once or 

 twice observed small parties in the thick and lustrous green 

 trees Avhich fringed the streams. 



Their flight, as I have hinted, is short and feeble, and, 

 unless under great provocation, they display a marked 

 disinclination to take wing. When they do so, they nearly 

 always leave their shelter on the side directly opposite to 

 that from which the observer is approaching ; so that the 

 latter seldom has the chance of observing tlieir escape to 

 quite a neighbouring bush. Indeed, on several occasions 

 on which I have observed this habit, I have been unaware 

 that the birds had left the retreat in which I had marked 

 them down, so silently and craftily is their departure made. 



Moreover, if it were not for the noise they make at sunrise 

 or sunset or when seriously alarmed, the presence of these 

 birds would seldom be suspected owing to their unusually 

 silent and secretive habits amidst the thick bushes at other 

 times of the day. On the approach of an intruder, one or 

 two birds out of the band occupying a bush or low tree will 

 often descend to the lower leafless branches, from whence 

 they can obtain a more extended view of their surroundings. 

 If reassured, they will then hop upwards, as I have myself 

 observed, from branch to branch and rejoin their fellows in 

 silence. If more suspicious, the whole band, after a few 

 notes of warning from the leader, may burst into the most 

 discordant notes of alarm ; after which they will probably, 

 one by one and very silently, take their short and generally 

 unobservable flight to a neighbouring retreat. 



On several occasions, Avhen quite unaware of the near 

 presence of a flock of Guans, I have been considerably 

 startled in the gloomy silence of the forest by this sudden 

 hullabaloo, occasioned by perhaps half a dozen birds suddenly 

 breaking out into loud cries of alarm. 



Rendered into words, the nearest ap[)roach to the chorus 



