THK MAGVALEXA RIVEK. 



67 



harsh screams of some macaws ahead of me, so I pushed on through 

 the trees, and got a long shot at one which fell screaming in a 

 thorny jungle. I forced my way into it, and as I picked it up it 

 bit my thumb until the blood streamed, and before I could choke 

 it off I began to be afraid that my thumb Avould be cut in two. 

 Its cries attracted its mate, which I also shot. They were smaller 

 than any macaws that I had seen, and were in wretched plumage. 

 Their general color was a grass-green, bluish about the head, a 

 reddish broAvn stripe on the forehead, primaries blue above, reddish 

 beneath, under Aving-coverts scarlet, tail reddish at base, then green, 

 then blue, but reddish beneath, skin of face white with lines of 

 bristly black feathers, beak black, feet dark {Ara sever a). 



A little later I shot a pair of the small parrakeets that I had seen 

 for several days past. They were miniature parrots, no larger than 

 sparrows, a bright grass-green, with secondaries, upper and under 

 wing-coverts, rump, and a ring around the eye a deep blue, beak 

 and feet flesh-color (Psittacula consplcillcita), 



I also shot a tanager, which the natives called a " cardinal." It 

 was like our scarlet tanager in size and distribution of color, except 

 that the scarlet, which was beautifully clear on the rump, grew 

 darker towards the head until it became a dark garnet. The plu- 

 mage Avas velvety, especially the black of the AvingSo The upper 

 mandible was black, the loAver a light horn-color {Ramjyliocelus 

 dimidiatus). Cabell then shot a small puff-bird about the size of 

 our pcAvee, but Avith a larger head and Aveaker tail. Its upper man- 

 dible Avas forked at the tip like that of the one that Ave shot at 

 Barranquilla. It AA^as black above, Avhite beloAv, Avith a black collar, 

 white specks on the forehead, a white spot on the scapulars and a 

 little Avhite on the rump {Bucco suhtectiis). Just as Ave were getting 

 on the boat, he shot a beautiful little bird about the size of our 

 chipping-sparroAV, glossy blue-black above^ Avith a yellow forehead 

 and bright yelloAV beloAV [Eiijylioma crassirostris). This was a 

 male, and in better plumage than any bird that Ave had gotten so 

 far. The female, as I found out later, is of a plain greenish yelloAV. 



