Daily Yellowstone journal., 1886-01-08
STRANGE FeArHeRso curl ,slTlss.
Tn, Bell Bird OF Brasll-The Lsre bird.
Oven bird and Others

IN, Bell BIRD OF Brasil-The Lsre bird.
oven Bird and OTHERS
london Telegraph
A remarkable bird-perhaps ore of the
most curious in all the range CT orni-
thology-is among the latest additions
10 the biological societys gardens 1t
is the campanero, or bell bird of the
Bra1ils, q member of q very strange
family of fowls, and itself one of the
strangest of them all. 1t ia about the
size of a iay, with plumage AS white as
snow. and rising out of the beak queer
horn like tabe that looks like a mo,dy
twig. Selecting by preference some
topmost branch of some great dead
giant of the wood, the campanero,
morning and evening, rings the day in
and rings il out. he mole is loud and
clear, AM can he heard three miles oil.
"No sound or cong from any of the
winged inhabitants OF the forest, not
even the clearly-pronounced wh;p-poor.
will of the goat sucker. causes" says
" aterton in his ''ramblings," 'such
astonishment as the toll of the bird
which the indians call the 'dara,' and
We the bell bird"
1t has single note of surprising mel
ody, while no other feathered thing.
not even the nightingale himself, can
Oh llenge from the listener such sweet
association or more sympathetic atten-
ton. In other respects it b 5
great claims to special notice
for the admirable originality of the
horn-like appendages which it wears,
some of them sticking straight up on
end, others pendulous like strips OF sea.
weel, resem ling the filaments which
the angler. fish is supposed to use as a
bait for its prey such variations from
ordinlry type are in themselves aimila-
bic, and certain measure of AL ira
ton naturally attaches to the in entlve
genius that devises these appendices.
Nor are its congeners less curious in
their persons. There is tho Tyre hird,
one OF the cleverest mimics in nature,
excelling even the parrot in the rea IL
ness with which it catches up
sounds, and the persistence with
which it goes on repeating all the
most disagreeable ones it learns, and
notable among fowls i0r the arrange
ment of its tail-feathers, from which it
takes its name Il once listened, says
Gould. ITO one of these birds that had
taken up its quarters near a sawyer's
hut. and it had made itself perfect in
all the noises of the wor ;man home.
stead--the Growing of the cocks, the
cackling of the hens, bar ing and howl
ing of the dogs, and even the painful
screeching of the sharpening and fling
of saws Another curious kinsman Of
the bell-bird is the bush-wren, remark
able for the very large 81 of its feet,
and also for its extraordinary ventrilo-
quism OF voice The South American
natives yenerate it, taking omen from
its different notes, and, as rule, i'm
plicitly acting upon the little bird s or
acuiar auguries.
Then there is the ''oven bird" SC
called from It's building strong, oven
like nests of mud, which may claim a
certain distinction as being at present
the only fowl known that insists upon
having two rooms, so to speak, in its
nest. Talking to its neighbors, the
oven bird, no doubt, speaks the sec
ond apartment as my wife's dressing
room, which is very civil ed and nice
of it. Some day, perhaps, naturalists,
who are perpetually improving upon
knowledge, will discover a bird that
not only has two rooms in its nest, but
a hath room attached. In the mean
while. the oven bird is foremost in his
ideas of what bird house should be.
Then there are the yociferous ant
thrushes, of which some species have
never been seen TO alight on the ground,
anu of which others are remarkable
among birds for the striking brilliancy
OF their plumage; and those miracles
OF courage. the little king birds"
Nor should the cock of the-roc r, with
its wondrous head gear, he forgotten;
nor the umbrella bird, which wears a
shade Of feathers over its head TO keep
/ itself from sunstroke; nor the broad
! hills, re rar able for such indifference
to danger as to have earned for them
selves the title OF the ''stupidest OF
bird" nor the destructive plant-cutters,
who 90 through life under the impress
sion that they have a mission TO shorten
the twigS of bushes. and are regular
fanatics in carrying out their supposed
duties.