WANDERINGS IN 



year, and makes a nest resembling that of the stock 

 dove. This bird never takes long flights, and when it 

 crosses a river or creek it goes by long jerks. 



The Boclora is very unsuspicious, appearing quite 

 heedless of danger : the report of a gun within twenty 

 yards will not cause it to leave the branch on which it is 

 sitting, and you may often approach it so near as almost 

 to touch it with the end of your bow. Perhaps there is 

 no bird known whose feathers are so slightly fixed to the 

 skin as those of the Boclora. After shooting it, if it 

 touch a branch in its descent, or if it drop on hard 

 ground, whole heaps of feathers fall off : on this account 

 it is extremely hard to procure a specimen for preser- 

 vation. As soon as the skin is dry in the preserved 

 specimen, the feathers become as well fixed as those in 

 any other bird. 



Another species, larger than the Boclora, attracts 

 much of your notice in these wilds ; it is called Cuia by 

 the Indians, from the sound of its voice ; its habits are 

 the same as those of the Boclora, but its colours differ- 

 ent ; its head, breast, back, and rump are a shining, 

 changing green ; its tail not quite so bright ; a black bar 

 runs across the tail towards the extremity, and the out- 

 side feathers are partly white as in the Boclora ; its 

 belly is entirely vermilion, a bar of white separating it 

 from the green on the breast. 



There are diminutives of both these birds ; they have 



