SECOND JOURNEY. 



109 



outside branches weave their pendulous nests. So 

 conscious do they seem that they never give offence, 

 and so little suspicious are they of receiving any injury 

 from man, that they will choose a tree within forty 

 yards from his house, and occupy the branches so low 

 down, that he may peep into the nests. A tree in 

 Waratilla creek affords a proof of this. 



The proportions of the cassique are so fine, that he 

 may be said to be a model of symmetry in ornithology. 

 On each wing he has a bright yellow spot, and his 

 rump, belly, and half the tail, are of the same colour. 

 All the rest of the body is black. His beak is the 

 colour of sulphur, but it fades in death, and requires 

 the same operation as the bill of the toucan to make it 

 keep its colours. Up the rivers, in the interior, there 

 is another cassique, nearly the same size, and of the 

 same habits, though not gifted with its powers of imi- 

 tation. Except in breeding time, you will see hundreds 

 of them retiring to roost, amongst the moca-moca-trees 

 and low shrubs on the banks of the Demerara, after 

 you pass the first island. They are not common on 

 the sea-coast. The rump of the cassique is a flaming 

 scarlet. All the rest of the body is a rich glossy black. 

 Hls bill is sulphur colour. You may often see numbers 

 of this species weaving their pendulous nests on one 

 side of a tree, while numbers of the other species are 

 busy in forming theirs on the opposite side of the same 

 tree. Though such near neighbours, the females are 

 never observed to kick up a row, or come to blows ! 

 Another species of cassique, as large as a crow, is 

 . very common in the plantations. In the 



Another r 



species of the morning he generally repairs to a large tree, 



Gctssicjue. 



and there, with his tail spread over his back, 



