Cuap. IX. THE ANACONDA. 235 
large glossy-black species (the Mitu tuberosa), having an orange- 
coloured beak, surmounted by a bean-shaped excrescence of the same 
hue. It seemed to consider itself as one of the family: attended at all 
the meals, passing from one person to another round the mat to be 
fed, and rubbing the sides of its head in a coaxing way against their 
cheeks or shoulders. At night it went to roost on a chest in a sleeping- 
room beside the hammock of one of the little girls, to whom it seemed 
particularly attached, following her wherever she went about the 
grounds. I found this kind of Curassow bird was very common in 
the forests of the Cupari; but it is rare on the Upper Amazons, where 
an allied species, which has a round instead of a bean-shaped waxen 
excrescence on the beak (Crax globicera), is the prevailing kind. 
These birds in their natural state never descend from the tops of the 
loftiest trees, where they live in small flocks and build their nests. The 
Mitu tuberosa lays two rough-shelled white eggs ; it is fully as large a 
bird as the common turkey, but the flesh when cooked is drier and not 
so well-flavoured. It is difficult'to find the reason why these superb 
birds have not been reduced to domestication by the Indians, seeing 
that they so readily become tame. The obstacle offered by their not 
breeding in confinement, which is probably owing to their arboreal 
habits, might perhaps be overcome by repeated experiment ; but for 
this the Indians probably had not sufficient patience or intelligence. 
The reason cannot lie in their insensibility to the value of such birds ; 
for the common turkey, which has been introduced into the country, is 
much prized by them. 
We had an unwelcome visitor whilst at anchor in the port of Joad 
Malagueita. I was awoke a little after midnight, as I lay in my little 
cabin, by a heavy blow struck at the sides of the canoe close to my 
head, which was succeeded by the sound of a weighty body plunging 
in the water. I got up; but all was again quiet, except the cackle of 
fowls in our hen-coop, which hung over the side of the vessel, about 
three feet from the cabin door. I could find no explanation of the 
circumstance, and, my men being all ashore, I turned in again and 
slept till morning. I then found my poultry loose about the canoe, 
and a large rent at the bottom of the hen-coop, which was about two 
feet from the surface of the water: a couple of fowls were missing. 
Senhor Antonio said the depredator was a Sucurujui (the Indian name 
for the Anaconda, or great water serpent, Eunectes murinus), which 
had for months past been haunting this part of the river, and had 
carried off many ducks and fowls from the ports of various houses. I 
was inclined to doubt the fact of a serpent striking at its prey from the 
water, and thought an alligator more likely to be the culprit, although 
we had not yet met with alligators in the river. Some days afterwards 
the young men belonging to the different sitios agreed together to go 
in search of the serpent. They began in a systematic manner, forming 
two parties, each embarked in three or four canoes, and starting from 
points several miles apart, whence they gradually approximated, 
searching all the little inlets on both sides the river. The reptile was 
found at last, sunning itself on a log at the mouth of a muddy rivulet, 
and despatched with harpoons. I saw it the day after it was killed ; it 
