342 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



before I secured it again. The irregularity of its wings, 

 their leaf-brown color edged with a line of yellow, and the 

 remarkable drifting flight in full sunshine, all helped to de- 

 ceive me. It was a moth, Gonodonta pyrgo. 



The Goldbirds,"^ although the size of large Thrushes, are 

 absolutely indistinguishable in their garb of dull brown in 

 the shadowy mid-forest, neither descending to the ground nor 

 ascending to the sun-lit tree -tops. 



Almost as common as the piercing wheel wheel o! of the 

 Goldbirds was a less loud but penetrating Chiickle-de-dee! 

 which we heard almost as soon as we entered the shadows 

 of the jungle. Three days of intermittent search passed 

 before we discovered the author of this omnipresent sound. 

 The note seemed to come from the tree-tops and we uncon- 

 sciously held in mind a bird at least the size of the Goldbird. 

 Imagine our surprise when, after searching the branches with 

 aching necks, we finally detected the bird in the very act, 

 finding it perched only about ten feet above our heads. 

 It was a veritable mite of a bird, the Golden-crowned Mana- 

 kin "° clad in forest green with a tiny crown spot of yellow. 

 From head to tail he measured less than three inches, and of 

 all the marvels which we have encountered in our travels 

 the most remarkable was how such a tiny creature, con- 

 siderably smaller than our Ruby-crowned Kinglet, could 

 produce such a tremendous volume of sound. His Chuckle- 

 de-dee! can easily be heard a hundred yards away through 

 dense forest. 



Once identified it was an easy matter to locate these little 

 Manakins. They loved the deep, damper parts of the woods 

 and were ridiculously tame, perching quietly and calling 

 continuously when one walked around within arm's reach. 

 We discovered the nest of one of these birds a short distance 

 from the mine clearing in a sapling about seven feet from the 

 ground, a very frail affair suspended in the fork of a branch. 



