Walter Goodfellow—Some Reminiscences of a Collector 451


supply of wasp grubs, so there was no difficulty in rearing them.

These also lived on the verandah in a small open box, and it was not

long before they used their wings, for they grew quickly. At first they

remained on the beams and flew down to me when they wanted food.

One after the other they began to take flights outside, returning to

the verandah to sleep, but grew to want less and less of my food,

until two cleared right off. Three still returned in the evenings for

quite another month, and then only one remained and that not for long.

The following year a pair of Swallows came back to roost and would

have built a nest, but were interfered with by my other birds. I could

not help thinking that one or both of these must have been those

of the previous year, as I never had a Swallow come there before

or after.


At another time I had two of the weirdest youngsters I have ever

seen, and it was quite a time before I knew exactly what they were,

although I surmised they were some sort of Cuckoo. They proved to

be one of the long-tailed ones (Piaya cay ana). At first they were covered

with spiky-looking grey quills quite two inches long, surmounted

with tufts of grey down. It was really quite difficult to handle them,

for they looked like little Porcupines and quite formidable. As the

feathers in the quills developed, more than half the upper portion

shrivelled up and dropped away. I fed them on the usual wasp grubs,

cockroaches, and hard-boiled egg, for I had no biscuits, bread, or

cake to make an insectile mixture. Flour was unobtainable, so the

only form of bread I had for four years was made of maize meal which

we grew ourselves. They turned out to be delightful birds and lived

to reach England just as tame as ever. I gave them to Mr. Brook

together with several other unusual birds. This Cuckoo is common

over a large part of tropical South America in several subspecies.

In Ecuador they were called Lengua de vaca (“ Cow’s Tongues ”), why,

I have no idea. They go in flocks, keeping to the low bushes in the

more open parts. The tail is very long and bright chestnut on

the upper side ; it is graduated with deep black and white tips to the

outer feathers, which looks very fine spread out in flight, or floating

better expresses it, as they seem to float from bush to bush. Roughly,

the colours are fawn and pale grey with darker chestnut wings. The



