116 
WANDERINGS IN 
SECOND 
JOURN F,Y 
The Cuia. 
neck 7 for above an inch all round; is quite bare of 
feathers; but this deficiency is not seen, for it always 
sits with its head drawn in upon its shoulders : it 
sometimes feeds with the cotingas on the guava and 
hitia trees; but its chief nutriment seems to be 
insects, and, like most birds which follow r this prey, 
its chaps are well armed with bristles : it is found 
in Demerara at all times of the year, and makes a 
nest resembling that of the stock dove. This bird 
never takes long flights, and when it crosses a 
river or creek it goes by long jerks. 
The boclora is very unsuspicious, appearing quite 
heedless of danger: the report of a gun within 
twentv yards will not cause it to leave the branch on 
which it is sitting, and you may often approach it so 
near as almost to touch it with the end of your bow. 
Perhaps there is no bird known whose feathers are 
so slightly fixed to the skin as those of the boclora. 
After shooting it, if it touch a branch in its descent, 
or if it drop on hard ground, whole heaps of feathers 
fall off: on this account it is extremely hard to pro¬ 
cure a specimen for preservation. As soon as the 
skin is dry in the preserved'specimen, the feathers 
become as well fixed as those in any other bird. 
Another species, larger than the boclora, attracts 
much of your notice in these wilds ; it is called Cuia 
by the Indians, from the sound of its voice; its 
habits are the same as those of the boclora, but its 
colours different; its head, breast, back, and rump, 
are a shining, changing green ; its tail not quite so 
bright; a black bar runs across the tail towards the 
