316 Information respecting Zoological Travellers. 



tain fields in large numbers. They produce from six to seven young 

 ones. 



An individual of that kind, which had been kept for some time in 

 the house where I resided during my stay in Georgetown, met with 

 a tragical end. I had procured two young Jabirus (Mycteria Ame- 

 ricano) : the first exploit when landed and introduced to their new 

 domicile was, that one assailed the cage which contained the opos- 

 sum, and having seized the poor animal with its beak, drew it by 

 force through the bars of the cage, and swallowed it without fur- 

 ther hesitation. 



Having brought these Jabirus under the notice of the reader, I 

 shall leave the class Mammalia, and turn for a few moments to the 

 Aves, in order to indulge in a biographical notice* of these two in- 

 teresting individuals with an introductory remark on the whole 

 tribe. 



The Jabiru or Negrokoop, as it is generally known to such of the 

 colonists who have seen this bird in its natural haunts, frequents the 

 great savannahs of the interior and the marshy environs of the 

 rivers Pomeroon and Guainia, where they live on mollusca, crabs, 

 frogs, and other amphibious animals. While at Pirara, I saw them 

 in flocks of several hundreds feeding at lake Amucu, or on the 

 marshy tracts along the Pacaraima mountains. During our stay in 

 that village several w T ere shot. Their flesh is palatable, and when 

 prepared with the necessary ingredients, as a steak, so strikingly re- 

 sembles beef, that one unacquainted with the fact would pronounce 

 it such. One was winged in shooting at a flock and was brought 

 alive to us. The bill measured 13 inches ; it was laterally com- 

 pressed, thick at its base, and ended rather sharply. The upper 

 mandible was straight and triangular, the lower rather thicker and 

 slightly turned up. The nostrils are narrow, as the bird seeks 

 its food in the water ; the feet with three anterior toes slightly 

 united by a membrane ; the hallux, or hind toe, high up on the 

 tarsus. 



* These notices of animals which inhabit Guiana are gleanings from my 

 Journal, taken at random as they occur, and without tying myself to any 

 scientific arrangement or description. Those who have thought the prece- 

 ding observations worthy of their perusal, will be aware that they do not pre- 

 tend to scientific dissertations ; it has been my wish to make the reader 

 acquainted with the manners of such of the animated beings of Guiana as 

 have come to my knowledge and under my personal observation, disclaiming 

 all scientific descriptions and discussions, which we will leave to a period 

 when I may have gained by experience, and when, not further urged by the 

 desire of extending my travels, leisure may permit me to digest what prac- 

 tical knowledge T possess. 



