Ostinops 
- 68 - 
The males are apparently engaged in feeding among the ter¬ 
minal leaves. Every now and then one of them ceases this 
occupation, utters a succession of curious liquid notes 
resembling somewhat the sound of water flowing from the 
neck of a bottle, curves his neck forward and down until 
the tip of the bill nearly touches the breast, jerks his 
tail straight up like a Wren and finally, raising his spread 
wings above his back, strikes their tips smartly together 
six or eight times in rapid succession, producing a loud, 
rattling or flapping sound. ....Altogether 
it is a remarkable and most grotesque 
performance and one which Chapman 
has’never before seen so satisfactorily as now. We both 
laugh heartily at it. 
All the while the smaller Corn Birds (Cassicus ) 
are flying back and forth across the road, clucking, 
croaking and whistling. Their flight resembles our Red¬ 
wings' whereas Ostinops flies more heavily and without 
undulations — in fact, almost precisely like a Crow Black¬ 
bird. 
The last picture is of a tall, bleached stub vvhich 
rises by the roadside above the surrounding cacao trees. 
Near the top of this stub is a hole out of which a large 
Woodpecker ( Hylotomus ) is peeping. His scarlet crest gleams 
in the sun like a red-hot coal and through the glass I see 
