THE UMBEELLA-BIED. 
135 
Mr. Wallace very aptly compares the individual feathers as 
standing out something like the down-bearing seeds of the 
dandelion^ so famihar to every child as floral clocks/^ On 
the breast there is another appendage^ formed by a fleshy 
tubercle^ as thick as a quill^ and an inch and a half long, 
which hangs down from the neck, and is thickly covered 
with glossy feathers, forming a large pendent plume or tas- 
sel. Like the gorget of the cock, this can be pressed close 
to its breast, so as to be scarcely visible, or can swell out 
so as almost to conceal the fore part of its body^'.''^ In the 
female the crest and neck appendages are not so much de- 
veloped. Mr. Wallace says that the umbrella-bird is con- 
fined to the flooded islands of the Rio Negro and the So- 
limoes, and never appears on the mainland. In Sir E. 
Schomburgk^s Guiana collection was a fine specimen, now 
in the British Museum. Mr. Wallace reports it as feeding 
on fruits, and as uttering a loud hoarse cry, like some deep 
musical instrument ; whence its Indian name Ueramimhe, 
or Trumpet-bird."'^ The birds are not uncommon; but 
from being very shy, and from perching on the highest trees, 
and being very muscular, are not easily brought down. On 
the day before Mr. Wallace returned to Barra a fine male 
* Wallace's ^ Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro/ pp. 169, 173. 
