276 Timehri. 
sued it will often squat like a quail taking care to turn its back to the aggressor 
and not its glaring breast. Taken into the hand, it flufis out its feathers as if 
it were going to faint and makes no attempt to defend itself. It seems to 
submit to its fate with a sigh. 
“You will not be able to keep it,” said the friend who brought me the 
specimen I still have. ‘‘ Why not ? ” said I, looking at its bill which is almost 
exactly like that of the corn-bird. “It ought to be a seed-eater, ” I added, 
** by the shape of its beak, and therefore easy to accommodate in the matter of 
food.”’ So it proved. But the bird dearly loves a grasshopper when I can 
get one. How isit, I may ask in passing, that grasshoppers are so comparative- 
ly scarce in this tropical country ? It is possible that this bird, put into a 
small cage, might fret itself to death ; but being put into one of moderate size, 
and with other birds, it takes a new thought of life and hope. I have never 
heard it utter its cry in captivity though it takes it bath with the others, and 
thereby shews that it is tolerably contented with its lot. 
THe CapDuRI. 
The common Caduri (Icterus chrysocephalus) was my next acquaintance ; 
and it is an acquaintance well worth cultivating, for this bird has as much 
excess of intelligence as the Redbreast has lack of it. The Caduri will become 
very tame going about the home and making itself generally friendly and 
mischievous. It has a much varied song and is, in fact, generally considered 
to be the best songster we have. It is a slenderly-built bird like the corn-bird 
and a little larger ; the beak is longer and slightly curved like a starling ; the 
tail is full and rounded at the end. It hops rather than walks ; and feeds on 
fruit and insects, not seed ; except occasionally, when it swallows it whole like a 
fowl. The colour is dead-black with yellow patches. It wears a yellow 
night-cap with strings—or perhaps some would prefer to call it a mob-cap ; it 
has yellow epaulettes upon its wings ; a yellow rump and vent. In an aviary 
it is inclined to be too interfering with others from sheer inquisitiveness and 
not maliciously, let us hope. When my young olive-green tanager was put 
into the cage it would open its mouth to my caduri to be fed ; but the latter 
merely looked into it like a dentist and gave an occasional peck. Later on, I 
found these birds actually feeding each other. The Caduri would bring Tom 
Pitcher a morsel of food and then apparently relent his generosity and take it 
back again ; and then Tom Pitcher cried so piteously that he gave it back again 
and so the game went on. 
THE KISKADER. 
No stranger remains many minutes in Georgetown without encountering the 
Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus). Its loud clarion note : ‘* Kee-Kay, Kee-Kay, 
Kee-Ka-Dee, ” will probably be the first sound that reaches him from the 
shore, and following its direction he will see a bold yellow and brown bird with a 
large head and a bill like a King Fisher or Barbet ; or rather, perhaps a pair of 
them for they are seldom seen singly. They are flying about the sheds of the 
stelling, shaking their wings and uttering this piercing challenge, and it is 
