322 . BIRDS OF BRITISH GUIANA. 



would return. I had scarcely selected a better position when the 

 bird returned, and I secured it." 



Schomburgk states (Reis. Guian. iii. p. G92) that the natives 

 maintained that this bird did not breed in British Guiana. He 

 could not, however, agree with them on that point, as he had met 

 wath the species himself in the Canuku Mountains at all times 

 of the year, and^ moreover, had obtained yonng males in the tran- 

 sition plumage. Near the coast it roams about from place to 

 place. Near Demerara and Berbice it appears in May and July, 

 but never visits the coast. Its favourite haunts appeared to be the 

 woods of the higher altitudes — for instance, it was very numerous 

 in the Canuku Mountains, though the altitude was not more than 

 12-1500 feet. He did not meet with it in the neighliourhood 

 of Roraima nor oii the mountain itself. On the topmost dried 

 branch of a Mora-tree you may see it ; and from there it 

 pours forth its enchanting bell-clear notes. Schomburgk says 

 that he had never heard two males singing on the same tree, but 

 he had often heard them answer each other from different trees 

 some little distance apart. At dawn it greets the coming day 

 by its clear metallic notes, and is the last to leave off when the 

 sun goes down. The Siskin-coloured females flit about lower 

 down the trees, and are very obtuse. He saw but little of them, the 

 reason being their silence and their plumage, which assimilates 

 with the foliage. The " Macusis " called it Dara or Parandorai. 



