Chap. II. THE ANACONDA. 113 



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 over- 

 come 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 Joao 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 sides 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 in 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 Sucuruju 

 (the Indian name for the Anaconda, or great water ser- 

 pent — 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 



VOL. II. I 



