A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



of the capoeira, the little woodcock builds, the Inhambu, and in 

 the grasses of the campos the brown birds which the Brazilians call 

 quails and partridges, although they are related not to their 

 European namesakes, but to the same Inhambu. The Sucurii 

 (Plate 28) digs a hole in the ground, while the Jacamars, resplendent 

 in bronze-green, with long bills, and resembling large humming- 

 birds, make their long nesting-tunnels in the sloping river-banks, 

 as do the kingfishers. 



Even those birds that build in the branches do not choose any 

 convenient position; one species prefers the lower boughs of the 

 bushes, another builds at a medium height, and others nest in the 

 tree-tops ; the latter are either particularly sturdy birds, or birds of 

 prey, for in the tree-tops the nests are for the most part exposed to 

 the gaze of the feathered brigands who hover above the wood, and 

 the smaller birds fear such enemies more than any others. 



It is interesting to note that the structure of the tropical forest, 

 which differs so greatly from that of a European wood, has in- 

 duced quite different methods of building the nest. The scaffold-like 

 structure of the tropical forest offers points of support everywhere, 

 not only for epiphytes, but for the nests of birds, and the tangle of 

 lianas running in all directions enables even heavy birds to leave 

 the ground and fly from perch to perch, as though in a hen-roost. 

 So the great game-birds of Brazil, the black Hokkos or Mutiim or 

 Curassows, and the rather smaller Jacus, with their red wattles, 

 nest in the trees, while our European game-birds nest on the ground. 

 These Brazilian wildfowl prefer as a rule to keep off the ground, and 

 the Jacus, if disturbed, do not at once fly off, but hop from bough to 

 bough and from liana to liana, quickly and silently disappearing 

 from sight. 



Most of the smaller European birds build their nests in trees or 

 bushes, in the crotches of boughs, or where a branch divides into 

 twigs, and they prefer trees and bushes of no great height, since 

 bushes are thicker and twigs more numerous near the ground. 



In the tropics, where the foliage is more open, it is not so easy 

 to conceal a nest in a bush or thicket. Even when I was in Ceylon 

 it struck me that there more birds nest in holes in the trees 

 than is the case in Europe. With its larger masses of timber, the 

 tropical forest affords more numerous opportunities for this method 

 of nesting ; the more frequent ramification of the trees into boughs, 

 which often turn perpendicularly upwards, is partly responsible; 

 in the angles of the boughs, which are exposed to the drip of rain, 

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