Brazil and the Brazilians : portrayed in historical and descriptive sketches . re distant woods we could hear the sometimes harsh and some-times musically-solemn sound of the uruponga, or tolling-bell bird,making the air resonant with its peculiar and solitary note. I hadlistened again and again to these birds in my journeys in differentparts of Brazil, but I never had the good fortune to see but one,and that was in the province of San Paulo. The sound which theuruponga (what a sweet aboriginal onomatope !) sends forth varieslittle, but it can always be said to be metallic. To hear it fromafar
Brazil and the Brazilians : portrayed in historical and descriptive sketches . re distant woods we could hear the sometimes harsh and some-times musically-solemn sound of the uruponga, or tolling-bell bird,making the air resonant with its peculiar and solitary note. I hadlistened again and again to these birds in my journeys in differentparts of Brazil, but I never had the good fortune to see but one,and that was in the province of San Paulo. The sound which theuruponga (what a sweet aboriginal onomatope !) sends forth varieslittle, but it can always be said to be metallic. To hear it fromafar, it is not unlike the tolling of a bell; but, when distance doesnot mellow the cadence, it is more like striking an anvil or thefiling of a large piece of iron. To listen to it in a Brazilian forestat mid-day, ringing forth its mournful knell when every othersongster is mute, powerfully disposes one To musing and dark melancholy. Wallace says, in his account of the Amazonian regions, Wehad the good fortune one day to fall in with a small flock of The Tolling-Bell Bird. 331. URUPONGA, ORTOLLIN G-8 ELL BIRD. the rare and curious bell-bird, (Casmarhynchos carunculata,~) but they were on a very thick, lofty tree, and took flight before we could get a shot at them. Though it was about four miles off in the forest, we went again the next day, and found them feeding on the same tree, but had no better success. On the third day we went to the same spot, but from that time saw them no more. The bird is of a pure white color, the size of a blackbird, has a broad bill, and feeds on fruits. From the base of the bill above grows a fleshy tubercle, two or three inches long and as thick as a quill, sparingly clothed with minute feathers : it is quite lax, and hangs down on one side of the birds head. The bird is remarkable for its loud, clear, ringing note,—like a bell,— which it utters at mid-day, when most other birds are silent. Waterton, in his wanderings in Demerara, often alludes t
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