274 Timehri. 
‘* What is the name of that bird, ” asked a friend of me, “ which seems to be 
a cross between a blue sacki and a canary ?” This isa fairly good description 
of the bucktown. The wings and tail, like that of the blue sacki, are bright 
cobalt blue changing into green according to the light ; the back and belly are 
yellowish white or dull indigo; the cap and vent reddish orange; the chin 
and throat, light indigo; and there is an almond-shaped patch of black on 
the face of which the eye is the centre, and from this it derives its awkward 
name. I have noticed that the yellow feathers are subject to great variation 
accordingly as the light falls upon them, and sometimes the colours are not so 
clearly defined as I have described, particularly in the hens. In my cage I 
have an open wheel and these birds take delight in turning it round by flying 
upwards from one transverse perch to another. The bird has a simple, short, 
sweet song. As in most tanagers the sexes are much alike, the cock being 
slightly large and brighter. 
IcTERID. 
Closely allied to the tanagers and like them confined to the New World, is a 
large genus, the Icteride. They have affinities with our English starling and 
also with the Fringellide, or finches. Many of them are exceedingly intelligent 
and therefore make interesting pets. Their affinitiy to starlings is at once 
noticeable in their stately walkand intheir spirit of inquistiveness. Most 
feed on seed like finches ; some prefer fruit, and all are ready to vary their 
diet with insects. 
Fifteen species are to be found in Demerara. 
My personal introduction to this class was a young cock corn-bird (Molothrus 
atronitens). It is variously named oats-bird, rice-bird and, from its cuckoo 
habit of placing its eggs in the nest of another bird, and chiefly in those of 
wrens, the lazy-bird. Much confusion prevails in the colony in the nomencla- 
ture of birds, at least among the common people. Few, for instance, will admit 
that the corn-bird and lazy-bird are identical. The corn-bird is the size of a 
starling and, as its specific name implies, is glossy black, or, perhaps I ought to 
say, blue-black. The feathers are delightfully hard and trim and there is a 
satiny sheen, blue or purple on the head and body and dark green on the primary 
feathers and tail. The head is almost snake-like, being narrow, and the beak 
is sharply pointed ; the tail is long and inclined to be bi-furcate. I know no 
bird which has such a sleek, slender, and glossy appearance, and so stately a 
gait. He seems to have been bred in adrawing-room. But the hen is a uniform 
brown. He is the polished gentleman who married his cook and so will not 
concern himself about domestic affairs; and she, slighted by her mate who 
will not call her spouse, will not trouble her head either, and so she cunningly 
deposits her egg in the nest of the good-natured god bird. 
The corn-bird has two distinct kinds of song. The first isa rehearsal. There 
is an internal gurgling sound, which one might even compare to a bark, and it 
seems to escape in a squeak ; the bird all the while puffs out his feathers and 
droops his wings, and if he has room enough, tumbles about like a drunken man. 
One might compare this preamble to a kettle boiling, the steam eventually 
