Provides An Emperor’s Feather-Cloak. 
339 
assumed another character: luxuriant ferns and thick clusters 
of Gesneriae covered the huge rocky boulders and increased the difficul- 
ties of descent still more, until we got to a deep ravine where we heard 
the pleasant splashing of a small torrent, in the cooling waters of which 
we refreshed ourselves to the full ; but my eyes sought the Rupicola in 
vain. When we had again climbed, under inexpressible difficulties, an 
uncommonly steep hill covered with innumerable granite boulders, we at 
last came upon a small spot where the ground was fairly level and only 
slightly covered with bush, I sat down here to rest while the Indians 
distributed themselves in the brushwood, when a peculiar cry that I 
put down to a quadruped, because it finite resembled the voice of a young 
cat, suddenly attracted my attention. The notes continued getting 
nearer and nearer at short intervals, the Indians deceptively imitating 
them the while, and all of a sudden one of the longed-for birds unex- 
pectedly perched on the bush in front of me : it was soon joined in a 
snipe-like flight by several others, which disappeared again just as 
quickly after searching the underwood in vain for the decoy. The hunter 
must utilise this short interval in which to shoot, because it is really the 
only moment when one might be successful. We had the luck to kill 
seven. The dirty grey plumage of the female contrasts strikingly with 
the brilliant orange colour of the male, which latter, however, is only 
attained in the third year. It is peculiar that the Rupicola carefully 
avoids the company of all other birds, and, accordingly, is only met in 
the most lonesome and wildest clumps of crag. The bird builds 
its nest in the deep fissures of the rocks to which it is stuck 
after the style of our swallows’ nests and at the same 
time protected as much as possible from the influence of the weather. 
They use a fairly sticky resin for binding and fastening the materials to 
the rocks and for the vegetable threads and root fibres of which it con- 
sists. Like several other birds the Rupicola seems to use its nest when 
once built, every year again, and only to raise it at each breeding season 
bv means of a new layer of rootlets and some feather-down: at all events 
this is what I concluded from the different strata lying one above the 
other. The outside is regularly plastered with that resinous material. 
They always lay but two eggs, white and sprinkled with a few black dots, 
which in colouring correspond exactly with that of species < f Pipra : the 
eggs themselves are somewhat larger than a pigeon’s. In such clefts one 
generally finds several nests beside and above one another, w hi« h luimshes 
a sure sign of their mutually peaceful disposition, fhe main breeding 
season appears to take place in the month of May, although I found quite 
young birds amongst the Indians in November: the latter seemed keen 
on rearing them. Horn Pedro I., Emporor of lira zil , used foi meilv to wear 
on special gala day a cloak made of variegated patches, as large as one's 
palm, from the breast of the toucan: the present Emperor wears one out 
of the skins of the Rupicola avrantia , now that the bird and its haunts are 
better known, and the districts on the Rio Negro, especially on the River 
Uaupes, have to deliver annually at Rio Janeiro a fixed number of these 
skins. 
