ORNITHOLOGY, 



tion of the colours of the body is no less remarkable, the plumage 

 in this part becoming abruptly of a fine yellow from the breast 

 clown to the thighs ; these latter are black, but the vent feathers 

 beyond are of a fine yellow, like the colour of the abdomen. The 

 upper parts of the body are green glossed with yellowish and 

 partaking of a golden lustre. The upper wing coverts and scapu- 

 lars are dark fuscous, mottled with greyish ; the quill feathers dark 

 brown, quills from the base to the middle white. The tail is cune- 

 ated or wedge-formed, the middle feathers being longer than the 

 outer ones. These feathers are most singularly contrasted with 

 the rest, being of a fine dark green, glossed with gold, and at the 

 tip black, while the three outer feathers on the contrary are white, 

 and from the base downwards nearly to the tip very elegantly mark- 

 ed with oblique indented bars of black, leaving the tip of each 

 feather immaculate ; the inner one of these three exterior feathers 

 are the same length as the dark ones, but the next outer feather is 

 shorter, and the extreme exterior feather on each side shorter than 

 the latter. 



There is a variety of this bird in which the belly, instead of 

 being yellow, is white ; the whole bird is a trifle smaller than the 

 . example now before us, and may possibly prove hereafter to be the 

 same species, in a less mature state of plumage, Buffon calls it 

 Le Couroucou verd* 



All the birds of this tribe at present known are inhabitants of 

 the warmer climates of South America and India. Our present 

 subject is a native of Cayenne, where it lives in damp and retired 

 woods, building upon the lower branches of trees and feeding chiefly 



D 



