The Cock of the Rock 125 



before I could fire. The Argus never made the slightest 

 attempt to attack the Fire-back, but retreated at once on the 

 slightest movement of the latter towards it, nor did I see the 

 Fire-back strike the Argus with cither bill, wings, or spurs." 



A similar kind of meeting-ground or playing-arena is 

 prepared by other species besides the Game-birds, and one 

 of the Passerine birds which indulges in this amusement is 

 the Cock of the Rock {Rnpicola crocca), of Guiana and 

 Amazonia. {See frontispiece.) It must be a curious sight 

 to watch an assembly of these beautiful birds, gathered 

 round to the number of twenty or more, males and females, 

 while some of the males "take the floor." The plumage of 

 the adult is of a bright orange colour with a beautiful 

 curved crest on the crown, while the secondaries are square 

 at the ends and form ornamental plumes. When dancing, 

 the bird droops his wings, waves his crest from side to side, 

 and hops along with most peculiar steps. The late Clarence 

 Buckley, the explorer of Ecuador, told me that he has seen 

 the males of the Blood-red Cock of the Rock (^Rnpicola 

 saiiguinolenta), in a state of frantic excitement, chasing each 

 other through the forest, clinging to the trunks of the trees, 

 and displaying their beautiful plumage to the utmost 

 extent. A third species, R. peruviana, also of a red colour, 

 inhabits Peru, where Stolzmann says that it frequents 

 the forest country from 2000 to 5000 feet, and builds its 

 nest on almost inaccessible rocks, laying two white eggs. 

 He says that it is called by the natives Tungi or 

 Coutscli-pisJicou, which means " Bird-Pig." It has the most 

 disagreeable cry of any bird he has ever heard, and the only 

 comparison he can think of is to that of a person being 

 sick. The first time he heard it, he thought it must be the 

 cry of a monkey, and not that of any bird. 



It is, however, among the Bower-birds {Pfiioiiorhynckidce) 

 that we find the most striking instances of Bird Architecture 

 in the wa)' of plaj'ing-grounds and arbours, and it must be 



