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Lord Brabourne.



and do not know how many eggs she has, but she took no notice of

our presence in the aviary, sitting as though glued to her nest, which

promises well.



GLIMPSES OF SOUTH AMERICAN

ORNITHOLOGY.


By Lord Brabourne.


In a well-known novel by a well-known and popular author

the following passage occurs :—“ In the shadow overhead flew and

chattered crowds of Green Paroquets and glossy Crows, while here and

there we could see a Bird of Paradise drooping its smart tail-feathers

amid the foliage. A little further and deep in the forest the ear

caught the tap-tap of the Woodpecker, the snap of the Toucan’s

beak or the deep trumpeting of the elephant. Once we startled a

leopard that gazed a moment at us with flaming eyes, and then was

gone with a wild bound into the thicket.” All this along a jungle

track in Ceylon, frequented by religious votaries and sight-seers.

Having no acquaintance with eastern bird-life the reference to

Birds of Paradise left the writer comparatively unmoved, but the

snapping of the Toucan’s beak ” sent cold shivers down the

back.


A few flocks of “ brightly-plumaged screaming birds flitting

their way from bough to bough, etc., etc.,” present flashes of warmly

picturesque local colouring, which both novelist and traveller alike

seem unable to resist; especially is the second an offender in this

respect. And while he may make a delightful book, he fixes in the

mind of his reader an impression doomed to a certain disappoint¬

ment, should he ever visit the scenes described. The reason is

obvious.


Imagine an observant traveller arriving at an Estancia in

middle Argentina about the end of September. He might

possibly notice, perched on the fencing of the garden of that

Estancia, two recent arrivals from the north ; a small livid, red

bird (. Pyrocaphalus ) and one of the same family, but widely

different in its style of beauty ; grey and white with a jet-black



