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Zaparo Indian villages somewhere in the forests, I had one given

to me alive. It was so exceedingly tame that I think it must

have been brought up by hand, and like most of the birds we got

from these Indians, had been in the habit of living constantly

on the women’s shoulders. It certainly preferred to run about

our clothes, or to perch on our fingers, to any other position. It

seemed to hold on to one so much tighter than any other bird

except a Parrot, because it has two claws in front and two behind

like a Woodpecker. It was, perhaps, rather more fond of

climbing than hopping from perch to perch, and it did the latter

somewhat clumsily, and gave one the impression that the feet

were loth to relax their grip of the perch ; still it was a lively

uncommon-looking bird, and had a quaint habit, when perched

on my finger, of lowering its head, turning up its tail, and jerk¬

ing its body quickly from side to side, accompanied by a bubbling

noise in the throat. Unfortunately, it was not in my possession

long, for it was eaten by the same dog which robbed me, about

that time, of one of my Tovi Parrakeets. Its favourite food was

the boiled fruit of the “chonta” palm—a mealy kind of carrot-

coloured fruit, tasting something like boiled chestnuts. It is a

food these particular Indians give to all birds and animals they

keep, and Parrots, when once used to it, seemed to prefer it to

all other food ; but it gives the bird or person who habitually

eats it a peculiar aroma which I consider anything but agreeable.

My punctahts would also eat banana, but not with the same

avidity as “ chonta,” and cockroaches and all insects it was mad

after.


On the Western side we met with several varieties of

Dacnis, the principal ones being the D. egregia, ccerebicolor , and

puicherrima. We found the first the commonest, and the last

the rarest. They are to be found in the clearings in the forests,

among the fruit trees about the huts, searching all day long for

insects ; and in the way they cling to the twigs and leaves,

remind one much of the Blue Tits. I have also seen them

taking small spiders from the thatch under the eaves of our hut.

They never seem still for an instant, but take little or no notice

of the presence of human beings. I once caught a ccerebicolor in

a butterfly net at Nanegal. We also found the beautiful Chloi-

ophanes atricapilla to be common in the same localities, especially

among banana plantations, and most of those we collected were

shot in the ripe bunches, in the company sometimes of large

birds.


One of the birds which took my fancy immensely was the

Black-faced Blue Chatterer (Procnias tersa). In certain localities



