176 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



with no thought of passing gnats. The myriads of graceful, 

 glossy blue forms, each crossed on the breast with a band of 

 white, made a most beautiful sight. In the morning their 

 return flight was by twos and threes, with rapid darts here and 

 there. Hunger now permitted no dressing of ranks or close 

 formation. During the day none were to be seen about the 

 bungalow, but only on the lake or a'ong the creek bed. The 

 unfortunate gnats which hummed in the bungalow clearing 

 were attended to by the litde Feather-toed Palm Swifts,'' 

 which were most abundant. 



Among the hosts of smaller birds which haunted the tree- 

 tops at the edge of the clearing, the Black-faced Green Gros- 

 beaks ^^'' were especially noticeable. In color they reminded 

 one of immature male Orchard Orioles, being yellowish 

 green with black throat and face. They fed morning and 

 evening on the reddish berries of a great vine which ripened 

 its fruit in the tree-tops, and here their song was repeated 

 over and over, a rattling buzz, like the rapid stroke of a 

 stick along the palings of a fence, followed by three liquid, 

 whip-like notes, thus: 



^— -^=n The buzz part of the song also 



i 



-g< — -s-- . . 



did duty as tlie call-note. 

 Once or twice each day wc would be treated to a glimpse 

 of the wonderful Pompadour Cotingas."" A flock of four 

 male birds would flash overhead and swing up to some lofty 

 perch, wary, silent, but of exquisite color. The whole body 

 was of a brilliant reddish purple — rich wine color — with 

 wings of purest white. Silhouetted against the blue sky 

 as they were perched close together, they might have been 

 Starlings or Blackbirds as far as color went, but when they 

 all shot off into the air and showed up against the green 

 leaves they fairly blazed — the yellow eyes, the scintillating 

 purple plumage, and the dazzling white wings. The last 

 flash of the wings before they were folded out of sight was a 



