INTRODUCTION. 1 1 9 



returned with a large arapaima or pirarucu (Sudis 

 g'gas). As it was late, and the fish weighed not 

 less than two hundred pounds, we deferred convey- 

 ing it on land until next morning. When morning 

 came, no fish was to he found in the canoe ; but 

 there were sufficient traces to show that it had been 

 dragged by the jaguar into the wood, where we 

 fiDund it minus its tail part, which to a third of the 

 fish's length had been eaten ofi*. It may be con- 

 ceived what strength was necessary to get it out of 

 the canoe ; and I am almost inclined to think that 

 it had been assisted by another jaguar. 



How numerous are the enemies which the fish 

 possess amongst the winged tribe of Guiana ! If we 

 consider their number, from the pygmiest of the 

 kingsfishers, scarcely the size of a sparrow, to the 

 stately jabiru,* which with his neck erect stands 

 upwards of six feet high, it may be easily ima- 

 gined how many perils the finny tribe have to un- 

 dergo, and that perhaps scarce one in a thousand 

 of those which are excluded from the egg dies of 

 old age. 



Look at the hanura {Ardea cocoi), alike distin- 

 guished, like its European prototype the heron, for 

 cowardice, indolence, and insatiable hunger. There 

 he sits on yonder tree, which partly overhangs that 

 hroad expanse of water, named a hirahagh or itabru 

 by the Indians, his long neck sunk between the 

 shoulders, and his whole figure bespeaking lean- 



* Mycteria Americana. 



