204 curucui. 



yellow ; irides gold-colour ; the under mandible furnished with stiff 

 black bristles, as well as the eye lids ;# the head, neck, and upper 

 part of the breast, back, rump, and upper tail coverts shining green, 

 with a gloss of blue in some lights ; the throat black ; wing coverts 

 bluish grey, with numerous transverse, zigzag lines of black ; quills 

 black, with part of the shafts white ; the breast, belly, sides, and 

 under tail coverts fine red ; thighs blackish ; the tail is cuneiform, 

 and green, like the back, but the three outer feathers are blackish, 

 crossed with slender lines of grey ; legs brown. 



The female is said to have those parts, which are of a fine brilliant 

 green in the male, black grey, and totally without gloss ; the zigzag 

 lines on the wings also are less conspicuous; and the three outer 

 tail feathers have the webs marked with black and white ; the upper 

 mandible not yellow, but brown, and the red colour does not extend 

 so high as the breast. 



Inhabits Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and other parts of South 

 America. It is the nature of the Curucui to lead a solitary life in 

 the thickest forests, especially in pairing time, when only two are 

 found together. At this season the male has a kind of melancholy 

 note, by which its haunts are discovered, at other times he is per- 

 fectly mute. They pair in April, and lay three or four white eggs, 

 in the hole of a rotten tree, on the bare dust : in defect of this 

 rotten matter, are said to bruise even sound wood into powder, with 

 the bill, which being strong and toothed, may readily be supposed 

 fully able to effect this. During incubation the male takes care to 

 provide food for the female ; and, by his trivial song, pleasant no 

 doubt to her, to beguile the time. The young, when first hatched, 

 are quite bare of feathers ; the head out of all proportion large, and 

 the legs, though short in the adult, seem too long. The parents 

 feed these with small worms, caterpillars, and insects, and when 

 able to shift for themselves, forsake them, to return to their solitary 



* Brisson mentions a bare spot of white beneath the eye, but I have not observed it in 

 any specimen, which has come under observation. 



