ed, the bill will please you; it will
appear in its original colours. Probably your own abilities will suggest
a cleverer mode of operating than the one here described. A small gouge
would assist the penknife, and render the operation less difficult.

The houtou ranks high in beauty amongst the birds of Demerara--his whole
body is green, with a bluish cast in the wings and tail; his crown, which
he erects at pleasure, consists of black in the centre, surrounded with
lovely blue of two different shades: he has a triangular black spot,
edged with blue, behind the eye, extending to the ear; and on his breast
a sable tuft, consisting of nine feathers edged also with blue. This
bird seems to suppose that its beauty can be increased by trimming the
tail, which undergoes the same operation as our hair in a barber's shop,
only with this difference, that it uses its own beak, which is serrated,
in lieu of a pair of scissors; as soon as his tail is full grown, he
begins about an inch from the extremity of the two longest feathers in
it, and cuts away the web on both sides of the shaft, making a gap about
an inch long; both male and female Adonise their tails in this manner,
which gives them a remarkable appearance amongst all other birds. While
we consider the tail of the houtou blemished and defective, were he to
come amongst us he would probably consider our heads, cropped and bald,
in no better light. He who wishes to observe this handsome bird in his
native haunts must be in the forest at the morning's dawn. The houtou
shuns the society of man: the plantations and cultivated parts are too
much disturbed to engage it to settle there; the thick and gloomy forests
are the places preferred by the solitary houtou. In those far-extending
wilds, about daybreak, you hear him articulate, in a distinct and
mournful tone, "Houtou, houtou." Move cautiously on to where the sound
proceeds from, and you will see him sitting in the underwood, about a
couple of yards from the ground, his tail moving up and down every time
he articulates "houtou." He lives on insects and the berries amongst the
underwood, and very rarely is seen in the lofty trees, except the
bastard-siloabali tree, the fruit of which is grateful to him. He makes
no nest, but rears his young in a hole in the sand, generally on the side
of a hill.

While in quest of the houtou you will now and then fall in with the jay
of Guiana, called by the Indians ibibirou. Its f