210 
THJG JtOCK-ltAXAKlW. 
as throughout the rest of our passage on the river, and 
studied their manners. 
The gallitos , or rock-manakins, are sold at Pararuma in 
pretty little cages made of the footstalks of palm-leaves. 
These birds are infinitely more rare on the hanks of the Ori- 
noco, and in the north and west of equinoctial America, than 
in French Guiana. They have hitherto been found only near 
the Mission of Encaramada, and in the Itaudates or cataracts 
of Maypures. I say expressly in the cataracts, because 
the gallitos choose for their habitual dwelling the hollows of 
the httlo granitic rocks that cross the Orinoco and form 
such numerous cascades. "We sometimes saw them appear 
in the morning in the midst of the foam of the river, calling 
their females, and fighting in the manner of our cocks, 
folding the double moveable crest that decorates the crown 
of the head. As the Indians very rarely take the full-grown 
gallitos, and those males only are valued in Europe, which 
from the third year have beautiful saffron-coloured plumage* 
purchasers should be on their guard uob to confound young 
females with young males. Both the male and female 
gallitos are of an olive-brown; but the polio, or young male* 
is distinguishable at the earliest age, by its size and b 9 
yellow feet. After the third year the plumage of the males 
assumes a beautiful saffron tint ; but the female remain 9 
always of a dull dusky brown colour, with yellow only on 
the wing-coverts and tips of the wings.* To preserve in 
our collections the fine tint of the plumage of a male and 
full-grown rock-manakin, it must not be exposed to the 
light. This tint grows pale more easy than in the otliei' 
genera of the passerine order. The young males, as in most' 
other birds, hare the plumage or livery of their mother- 
1 am surprised to see that so skilful a naturalist as l jt * 
Vaillantf can doubt whether the females always remain oj 
a dusky olive tint. The Indians of the Baudales all assured 
me that they had never seen a saffron-coloured female. 
Among the monkeys, brought by the Indians to the f& 1 * 
of Pararuma, we distinguished several varieties of the sah* 
* Especially the part which ornithologists call the carp‘M. 
f Oiseaux de Paradis, vol. ii, p. 61. 
J Sirnia capucina, (the capuchin monkey). 
