202 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



court his mate. As he uttered his incoherent medley of 

 liquid cowbell-Iike notes, he bent his neck, thrusting his head 

 far downward and forward, and at tlie same time throwing 

 both wings forward and around in a semicircle. As this 

 curious action was comj)leted, the vocal utterance came to a 

 close and the ])erformance was over. The early stages in the 

 evolution of such a courtship may be observed in our common 

 Cowbird of the north, anrl a further developed stage in the 

 little Guiana Cowljird. 



THE CITY OF THE CASSIQUES. 



On tlie first day of our arrival, even before we came in 

 sight of the clearing, we heard the cries of the splendid big 

 Orioles or Cassiques, known all over Guiana as Bunyahs. 

 In the creek bed l^elow the dam, but within the radius of the 

 clearing, stoofl a medium sized tree and among its branches a 

 colony of Scarlet-backed Cassiques '''' were flying back and 

 forth from their nests. 



We made a mental note of them at the time but passed on 

 without giving them more than a glance. Later near the 

 bungalow we occasionally saw them in small numbers 

 associating, as we have already stated, with the Lavender 

 Jays.'"' 



As we wished to take a number of young Cassiques back to 

 New York with us and to study the colony as thoroughly as 

 we could in the space of a week's time, we started out early 

 one morning for the Cassiques' tree. The long pendent 

 nests were all seventy feet or more from the ground. Taking 

 the rusty climbing irons from their case, we recalled vividly 

 the last time they had Ijeen in use — a cold June day in Nova 

 Scotia, when the nesting hole of a Three-toed Woodpecker 

 had been the goal. How different were these tropical 

 surroundings ! 



