410 
NOTES ON THE CASSIQUES. 
as to permit of a free circulation of fresh air through tlie interstices. 
Internally, there is no warm lining: and more, the nest is generally 
built with a westward exposure ; the object evidently being to secure 
coolness. But in the Northern States the nest is placed so as to 
receive the benefit of the sun's rays, and it is lined with the finest and 
warmest materials. Is this adaptation to climatic conditions a mere 
matter of instinct ? 
THE CASSIQUES. 
And now let us turn to the cassiques, of which there are several 
species, all of them inhabiting Tropical America, where they fill much 
the same place as in Europe is filled by the common crow. They are 
lively, agile, handsome, quick-witted birds, living in the green forest- 
depths, and feeding upon insects, the smaller mammals, seeds, and 
fruits. As fruit-eaters, they pay a visit to the orchard when the crop is 
ripening ; and they are accused of achieving considerable havoc, though 
it is probable that they compensate, and more than compensate, for 
any injury to the fruit by their ceaseless pursuit of the insect-plagues. 
Their voice, if not so softly melodious as that of the jacamar, has a 
charm of its own, and is remarkable for its flexibility. Schomburgk 
says that the European settlers in Guiana have baptized some of the 
species by the name of " mocking-bird ; " and that they imitate not 
only the songs and calls of other birds, but also the voices of mammals. 
It is impossible to imagine, he asserts, a noisier or more restless creature 
than one of these so-called mocking-birds. We will suppose that the 
forest is hushed in silence ; suddenly he raises his strain, which in itself 
is by no means disagreeable ; then a toucan lifts up his lamentation, 
and the mocking-bird becomes for the nonce a toucan ; the woodpeckei-s 
chant aloud, and he becomes a woodpecker ; the sheep begin to bleat, 
and he responds to their bleating. Afterwards, if the other sounds 
subside, he resumes his own proper minstrelsy — to take up, before long, 
the gobbling of the turkeys and the quacking of the geese in the 
neighbouring farm. And while he is imitating this medley of utter- 
ances, he adopts the most singular attitudes, — bending his head in 
every direction, turning his neck, and his whole body, — and all in so 
comical a fashion as to provoke the laughter of the spectator. 
