ANIMAL MIGRATIONS 373 



dinner-table. "Now," said Dona Juanita, "is the 

 time for the water cure " ; and she set her maids to 

 sprinkle water over the visitors, who at once took 

 the hint, gathered up their scattered squadrons, 

 reformed in column, and resumed their march. 

 Whenever their inquisitions became troublesome 

 to myself during the three days, I took the liberty 

 to scatter a few suggestive drops among them, and 

 it always sufficed to make them turn aside ; but any 

 attempt at a forcible ejectment they were sure to 

 resent with tooth and tail ; and their bite and sting 

 were rather formidable, for they were large and 

 lusty ants. For weeks afterwards the squeaking of 

 a mouse and the whirring of a cockroach were 

 sounds unheard in that house. 1 



MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS AND MAMMALS 



The most remarkable migration that I have my- 

 self witnessed in South America is that of the great 

 \Voocl-Ibis (7\intalus locn/ator}, called Jabirii in 

 Brazil, Gauan in Venezuela, between the Amazon 

 and the Orinoco, a distance of from 300 to 500 miles 

 in a straight line, but a thousand or more following 

 the course of the rivers. The migrations are so 

 timed that the birds are always on the one river or 

 the other when the water is lowest and there is 

 most sandy beach exposed, affording the greatest 

 extent of fishing-ground. In the years 1853 and 



1 The ants called Carniceras or Butchers in Maynas are probably of a 

 tribe distinct from the Foragers ; for they are burrowing ants, ami are said to 

 prefer the flesh of human carcasses to any oilier food. Padre Velasco, in his 



History of Quit.'. us thai they \\ill make a perfect >keleton ol a corpse 

 the very day it is buried, and that tlx-y devour any di-.abl.-d animal, hov 

 lan^e, they find in the fore-t. 



