Birds.—I have already had occasion to mention several of the more

The remains of insects belonged to species of Scarites (Coleoptera), having blunt maxillary blades, several of which fly abroad in great numbers on warm nights.

interesting birds found in the Ega district. The first thing that would strike a new-comer in the forests of the Upper Amazons would be the general scarcity of birds; indeed, it often happened that I did not meet with a single bird during a whole day’s ramble in the richest and most varied parts of the woods. Yet the country is tenanted by many hundred species, many of which are in reality abundant, and some of them conspicuous from their brilliant. plumage. The cause of their apparent rarity is to be sought in the sameness and density of the thousand miles of forest which constitute their dwelling-place. The birds of the country are gregarious, at least during the season when they are most readily found; but the frugivorous kinds are to be met with only when certain wild fruits are ripe, and to know the exact localities of the trees requires months of experience. It would not be supposed that the insectivorous birds are also gregarious; but they are so, numbers of distinct species, belonging to many different families, joining together in the chase or search of food. The proceedings of these associated bands of insect hunters are not a little curious, and merit a few remarks. Whilst hunting along the narrow pathways that are made through the forest in the neighbourhood of houses and villages one may pass several days without seeing many birds; but now and then the surrounding bushes and trees appear suddenly to swarm with them. There are scores, probably hundreds, of birds, all moving about with the greatest activity—woodpeckers and Dendrocolaptide (from species no larger than a sparrow to others the size of a crow) running up the tree trunks; tanagers,* ant-thrushes, humming-birds, fly-catchers, and barbets, flitting about the leaves and lower branches. The bustling crowd loses no time, and although moving in concert, each bird is occupied on its own account in searching bark, or leaf, or twig; the barbets visiting every clayey nest of termites on the trees which lie in the line of march. In a few minutes the host is gone, and the forest path remains deserted and silent as before. I became in course of time so accustomed to this habit of birds in the woods near Ega, that I could generally find the flock of associated marauders whenever I wanted it. There appeared to be only one of these flocks in each small district; and as it traversed chiefly a limited tract of woods of second growth, I used to try different paths until I came up with it.

The Indians have noticed these miscellaneous hunting parties of birds, but appeared not to have observed that they are occupied in searching for insects. They have supplied their want of knowledge, in the usual way of half-civilised people, by a theory which has degenerated into a myth, to the effect that the onward moving bands are led by a little gray bird called the Papd-uird, which fascinates all the rest, and leads them a weary dance through the thickets. There is certainly some appearance of truth in this explanation; for sometimes stray birds encountered in the line of march are seen to be drawn into the throng, and purely frugivorous birds are now and then found mixed up with the

Tachyphonus surinamus and cristatus, Tanagrella elegantissima. I very often found fruit-eating birds, such as Cassicus icteronotus and Capito Amazoninus, mingled with these bands.

rest, as though led away by some will-o’the-wisp. The native women, even the white and half-caste inhabitants of the towns, attach a superstitious value to the skin and feathers of the Papd-uird, believing that if they keep them in their clothes’ chest the relics will have the effect of attracting for the happy possessors a train of lovers and followers. These birds are consequently in great demand in some places, the hunters selling them at a high price to the foolish girls, who preserve the bodies by drying flesh and feathers together in the sun. I could never get a sight of this famous little bird in the forest. I once employed Indians to obtain specimens for me; but after the same man (who was a noted woodsman) had brought me at different times three distinct species of birds as the Papd-uird, I gave up the story as a piece of humbug. The simplest explanation appears to be this, that the birds associate in flocks from the instinct of self-preservation, and in order to be a less easy prey to hawks, snakes, and other enemies, than they would be if feeding alone. Toucans.— Cuvier’s Toucan.—Of this family of birds, so conspicuous from the great size and light structure of their beaks, and so characteristic of Tropical American forests, five species * inhabit the woods of Ega. ‘The largest of all the Toucans found on the Amazons, namely, the Ramphasto toco, called by the natives Tocdno pacova, from its beak resembling in size and shape a banana or pacova, appears not to reach so far up the river as Ega. It is abundant near Para, and is found also on the low islands of the Rio Negro, near Barra, but does not seem to range much farther to the west. The commonest species at Ega is Cuvier’s Toucan, a large bird, distinguished from its nearest relatives by the feathers at the bottom of the back being of a saffron hue instead of red. It is found more or less numerously throughout the year, as it breeds in the neighbourhood, laying its eggs in holes of trees, at a great height from the ground. During most months of the year it is met with in single individuals or small flocks, and the birds are then very wary. Sometimes one of these little bands of four or five is seen perched, for hours together, amongst the topmost branches of high trees, giving vent to their remarkably loud, shrill, yelping cries, one bird, mounted higher than the rest, acting, apparently, as leader of the inharmonious chorus; but two of them are often heard yelping alternately, and in different notes. These cries have a vague resemblance to the syllables Tocadno, Tocano, and hence the Indian name of this genus of birds. At these times it is difficult to get a shot at Toucans, for their senses are so sharpened that they descry the hunter before he gets near the tree on which they are perched, although he may be half-concealed amongst the underwood, 150 feet below them. -They stretch their necks downwards to look beneath, and on espying the least movement amongst the foliage, fly off to the more inaccessible parts of the forest. Solitary Toucans are sometimes met with at the same season, hopping silently up and down the larger boughs, and peering into crevices of the tree-trunks. They moult in the months from March to

Ramphastos Cuvieri, Pteroglossus Beauharnaisii, Pt. Langsdorffi, Pt. castanotis, Pt. flavirostris. Further westward, namely, near St. Paulo, a sixth species makes its appearance, the Pteroglossus Humboldtii.

June, some individuals earlier, others later. This season of enforced quiet being passed, they make their appearance suddenly in the dry forest, near Ega, in large flocks, probably assemblages of birds gathered together from the neighbouring Ygapé forests, which are then flooded and cold. The birds have now become exceedingly tame, and the troops travel with heavy laborious flight from bough to bough amongst the lower trees. ‘They thus become an easy prey to hunters, and every one at Ega, who can get a gun of any sort and a few charges of powder and shot, or a blow-pipe, goes daily to the woods to kill a few brace for dinner; for, as already observed, the people of Ega live almost exclusively on stewed and roasted Toucans during the months of Juneand July. The birds are then very fat, and the meat exceedingly sweet and tender. I did not meet with Cuvier’s Toucan on the Lower Amazons; in that region, the sulphur and white-breasted Toucan (Ramphastos Vitellinus) seems to take its place; this latter species, on the other hand, being quite unknown on the Upper Amazons. It is probable they are local modifications of one and the same stock.

No one on seeing a Toucan can help asking what is the use of the enormous bill, which, in some species, attains a length of seven inches, and a width of more than two inches. A few remarks on this subject may be here introduced. The early naturalists having seen only the bill of a Toucan, which was esteemed as a marvellous production by the wirtuost of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, concluded that the bird must have belonged to the aquatic and web-footed order, as this contains so many species of remarkable development of beak, adapted for seizing fish. Some travellers also related fabulous stories of Toucans resorting to the banks of rivers to feed on fish, and these accounts also encouraged the erroneous views of the habits of the birds, which for a long time prevailed. Toucans, however, are now well known to be eminently arboreal birds, and to belong to a group (including trogons, parrots, and barbets*), all of whose members are fruit-eaters. On the Amazons, where these birds are very common, no one pretends ever to have seen a Toucan walking on the ground in its natural state, much less acting the part of a swimming or wading bird. Professor Owen found, on dissection, that the gizzard in Toucans is not so well adapted for the trituration of food as it is in other vegetable feeders, and concluded, therefore, as Broderip had observed the habit of chewing the cud in a tame bird, that the great toothed bill was useful in holding and re-masticating the food. The bill can scarcely be said to be a very good contrivance for seizing and crushing small birds, or taking them from their nests in crevices of trees, habits which have been imputed to Toucans by some writers. The hollow, cellular structure of the interior of the bill, its curved and clumsy shape, and the deficiency of force and precision when it is used to seize objects, suggest a want of fitness, if this be the function of the member. But fruit is undoubtedly the chief food of Toucans, and it is in reference to their mode of obtaining it that the use of their uncouth bills is to be sought.,

Flowers and fruit on the crowns of the large trees of South American forests grow, principally, towards the end of slender twigs, which will

Capitoninz, G. R. Gray.

not bear any considerable weight; all animals, therefore, which feed upon fruit, or on insects contained in flowers, must, of course, have some means of reaching the ends of the stalks from a distance. Monkeys obtain their food by stretching forth their long arms and, in some instances, their tails, to bring the fruit near to their mouths. Humming-birds are endowed with highly-perfected organs of flight, with corresponding muscular development, by which they are enabled to sustain themselves on the wing before blossoms whilst rifling them of their contents. These strong-flying creatures, however, will, whenever they get a chance, remain on their perches whilst probing neighbouring flowers for insects. Trogons have feeble wings, and a dull, inactive temperament. Their mode of obtaining food is to station themselves quietly on low branches in the gloomy shades of the forest, and eye the fruits on the surrounding trees, darting off, as if with an effort, every time they wish to seize a mouthful, and returning to the same perch. Barbets (Capitoninze) seem to have no special endowment, either of habits or structure, to enable them to seize fruits; and in this respect they are similar to the Toucans, if we leave the bill out of question, both tribes having heavy bodies, with feeble organs of flight, so that they are disabled from taking their food on the wing. The purpose of the enormous bill here becomes evident. Barbets and Toucans are very closely related; indeed, a genus has lately been discovered towards the head waters of the Amazons,* which tends to link the two families together; the superior length of the Toucan’s bill gives it an advantage over the Barbet, with its small, conical beak; it can reach and devour immense quantities of fruit whilst remaining seated, and thus its heavy body and gluttonous appetite form no obstacles to the prosperity of the species. It is worthy of note that the young of the Toucan has a very much smaller beak than the full-grown bird. The relation between the extraordinarily lengthened bill of the Toucan and its mode of obtaining food, is precisely similar to that between the long neck and lips of the Giraffe and the mode of browsing of the animal. The bill of the Toucan can scarcely be considered a very perfectly-formed instrument for the end to which it is applied, as here explained; but nature appears not to shape organs at once for the functions to which they are now adapted, but avails herself, here of one already- existing structure or instinct, there of another, according as they are handy when need for their further modification arises. One day, whilst walking along the principal pathway in the woods near Ega, I saw one of these Toucans seated gravely on a low branch close to the road, and had no difficulty in seizing it with my hand. It turned out to be a runaway pet bird; no one, however, came to own it, although I kept it in my house for several months. The bird was in a half-starved and sickly condition, but after a few days of good living it recovered health and spirits, and became one of the most amusing pets imaginable. Many excellent accounts of the habits of tame toucans have been published, and therefore I need not describe them in detail, but I do not recollect to have seen any notice of their intelligence and

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