376 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



The Ibises doubtless undertake these voyages 

 from the testimony and under the guidance of the 

 elders, far more than from any inherited know- 

 ledge or instinct ; whereas the flights of butterflies 

 one would think must be directed by instinct alone, 

 without any aid from experience. 



Many mammals wander far in search of food; 

 and some that go in bands, such as wild Pigs and 

 some Monkeys, have known feeding -places at 

 certain times of the year, when some particular 

 kind of fruit is in season there ; so that the ex- 

 perienced Indian hunter often knows in what 

 direction to bend his steps to fall in with a certain 

 class of game. It is well known how fond all 

 animals are of the Alligator pear, which is the fruit 

 of a large Laurel (Persea gratissima). I have seen 

 cats prefer it to every other kind of food ; and the 

 wild cat-like animals are said to be all passionately 

 fond of it. I have been told by an Indian that in 

 the forests between the Uaupes and the Japura, he 

 once came on four Jaguars under a wild Alligator 

 pear tree, gnawing the fallen fruits and snarling 

 over them as so many cats might do. I have 

 gathered flowers of at least four species of Persea, 

 but was never fortunate enough to find one of them 

 with ripe fruit ; so that I have missed seeing the 

 concourse of animals of many kinds which I am 

 assured assemble in and under those trees, attracted 

 by the fruit. \Yhile speaking of fruit-eating car- 

 nivora, it is worth mentioning that dogs in South 

 America often take naturally to eating fruit. I had 

 in Peru a fine Spanish spaniel who, so long as he 

 could get ripe plantains, asked for no better food. 

 He would hold them between his paws and pull off 



