Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
THE FREE-TOED PERCHING BIRDS
THE CHATTERERS
The Snow-white Bell-bird
(C. niveus) of Guiana and Venezuela is distinguished at once by the presence of a slender, erectile, black caruncle at the base of the upper mandible, this being nearly three inches long and sparsely covered or ornamented with small, white, star-like feathers. In Central America occurs another species (C. tricarunculatus) even more remarkable as regards the caruncles than the last, since it possesses three of these long and naked processes, one arising from the middle of the forehead and the others from the corners of the mouth. In the Naked-throated Bell-bird (C nudicollis), as the name implies, the sides of the head and throat are naked or covered with small scattered bristles; the caruncle is absent. This latter species is confined to southeastern Brazil.