THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



757 



=and confiding disposition under domestiea- 

 tton, in which qualities my pet seemed to be 

 almost equal to parrots. I allowed Tocano 

 to go free about the house, contrary to my 

 visual practice with pet animals ; he never, 

 .however, mounted my working-table after a 

 , smart correction which he received the first 

 time he did so. He used to sleep on the top 

 ><>f a box in a corner of the room, in the usual 

 position of these birds, namely, with the long 

 tail laid right over on the back, and the beak 

 :th rust underneath the wing. He ate of every- 

 thing that we eat, beef, turtle, fish, farinha, 

 fiuit, and was a constant attendant at our 

 'table a cloth spread on a mat. His appe- 

 tite was most ravenous, and his powers of 

 digestion quite wonderful. He got to kiiow 

 the meal hours to a nicety, and we found it 

 very difficult, after the first week or two, to 

 "keep him away from the dining-room, where 

 Hie had become very impudent and trouble- 

 rsome. We tried to shut him out by inclos- 

 ing him in the back yaid, which was sepa- 

 THtert by a high fence from the street on 

 whioh our front door opened, but he used to 

 .climb the fence and hop round by a long cir- 

 *-uit to the dining-room, making his appear- 

 mnce with the greatest punctuality as the 

 meal was placed on the table. He acquired 

 <he habit afterward of rambling about the 

 street near our house, and one day he was 

 stolen, so we gave him up for lost. But two 

 days afterward he stepped through the open 

 doorway at dinner-hour, with his old gait 

 rand sly, magpie-like expression, having es- 

 ped from the house where he had been 

 guarded by the person who had stolen him, 

 iand which was situated at Mie fuither end of 

 the village 



The Curl-crested Tovcan (Pterogtossus Beau- 

 Jiarnami). Of lire four smaller Toucans, or 

 Arassaris, found near Ega, the Pteroglossus 

 flavirostris is perhaps the must beautiful in 

 -colors, its breast being adorned with broad 

 belts of rich crimson and black; but the 

 imost curious species by far is the Curl- 

 .crested, or Beaunaraais Toucan. The 

 if eat hers on the head of this singular bird are 

 transformed into thin horny plates, of a 

 lustrous black color, curled up at the ends, 

 .and resembling shavings of steel or ebony 

 wood, the curly ciest being ananged on the 

 ,cn.wn in the fo.m of a wig. Mr. Wallace 

 rand 1 fi st. met with this species on ascending 

 -.the Amazons, at the mouth of fheSolimoeus ; 

 ,'frcm that point it continues s a rather 

 .common l;ird on the tena rirma, at least on 

 the south side of the river, as far as Fonte 

 B*.a, but I did not hear of its being found 

 further to the west It appears in lanre 

 ifloeks in the forests near Ega in May and 

 June, when it has completed its moult. 1 

 did not find these bands congregated at fruit 

 tuees, but always wandering through the for- 

 est, hopping from branch to branch among 

 In* lower trees, and partly concealed among 

 the foliage. None of theArassaris to my 

 knowledge make a yelping noise like that 

 uttered by the larger Toucans (Ramphastos) ; 

 the notes of Uie cuJ-crested species are very 



singular, resembling the croaking of frogs. 

 1 had an amusing adventure one day with 

 these birds. 1 had shot one from a rather 

 high tree in a daik glen in the forest, and en 

 tered the thicket where the bird had fallen to 

 secure my booty. It was only wounded, 

 and on my attempting to seize it, set up a 

 loud scream. In an instant, as if by magic, 

 the shady uook seemed alive with these 

 birds, although there was certainly none visi- 

 ble when I entered the jungle. They de- 

 sceuded toward me, hopping from bough to 

 bough, some of them swinging on the loops 

 and cables of woody lianas, and all croaking 

 and fluttering their wings like so many 

 furies. If 1 had had a long stick in my 

 hand, I could have knocked several of them 

 over. After killiug the wounded one, I be- 

 gan to prepare for obtaining more specimens 

 and punishing the viragoes tor their boldness ; 

 but the screaming of their companion having 

 ceased, they remounted the trees, and before 

 I could reload every one of them had disap- 

 peared. 



_ T _ . f . 



/*. Upward of 7000 species of insecte 

 w ere found m the neighborhood of Lga. 1 

 mast confine myself in this place to a few 

 remarks on the order Lepidoptera , and on 

 the ants several kinds of which found chiefly 

 on the Upp^r Amazons, exhibit the most ex- 

 train! m*ry instincts. 



I found about 5oO distinct species of ^ but- 

 terflies at Ega. Those who know a little of 

 Entomology will be able to form some idea 

 ^ the r 'ces of the place m this department 

 when I mention that eighteen species of true 

 PP> i (&* swallow-tail genus) were found 

 within ten minutes' walk of my house. No 

 fact could speak more plainly for the sur- 

 passing exuberance of the vegetation, the 

 varied nature of the land, the perenma 

 warmth and humidity of the climate. But 

 no description can convey an adequate notion 

 of the beauty and diversity in form and color 

 of this class of insects in the neighborhood 

 of Ega. I paid especial attention to them, 

 having f<mad that this tribe was batter 

 adapted than almost any other group of am- 

 nials or plants, to furnish facts m illustration 

 of the modifications which ad species under- 

 go in nature uudefr changed local conditions. 

 Thi.s accidental superiority is owing partly 

 to the simplicity and distinctness of the spe- 

 ciflc characters of the insects, aud partly to 

 the facility with which very copious series 

 of specimens can be collected and placed side 

 by side for comparison The distinctness of 

 the specific characters is due probao y to the 

 fact that all the superficial signs of change m 

 the organization are exaggerated and made 

 unusually plain by affecting the framework, 

 shape, and color of the wings, which, as 

 uian^y anatomists believe, are magnified ex- 

 tensions of the skin around the breathing 

 orifices of the thorax of the insects. These 

 expansions are clothed with minute feathers 

 or scales, colored in regular palterris, which 

 vary in accordance with the slightest cliunge 

 "* the conditions to which the specie? aro * 



