33G ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V. 



effect of attracting for the happy possessors a train of 

 lovers and . followers. These birds are consequently in 

 great demand in some places, the hunters selling them 

 at a high price to the foolish girls, who preserve the 

 bodies by drying flesh and feathers together in the sun. 

 I could never get a sight of this famous little bird in 

 the forest. I once employed Indians to obtain speci- 

 mens for me ; but, after the same man (who was a 

 noted woodsman) brought me, at different times, three 

 distinct species of birds as the Papa-uira, I gave up the 

 story as a piece of humbug. The simplest explanation 

 appears to be this ; that the birds associate in flocks 

 from the instinct of self-preservation, and in order to 

 be a less easy prey to hawks, snakes, and other enemies 

 than they would be if feeding alone. 



Toucans. — Cuvier's Toucan. — Of this family of 

 birds, so conspicuous from the great size and light struc- 

 ture of their beaks, and so characteristic of Tropical 

 American forests, five species* inhabit the woods of 

 Ega. The largest of all the Toucans found on the 

 Amazons, namely, the Ramphastos toco, called by the 

 natives Tocano pacova, from its beak resembling in 

 size and shape a banana or pacova, appears not to reach 

 so far up the river as Ega. It is abundant near Para, 

 and is found also on the low islands of the Rio Negro, 

 near Barra, but does not seem to raDge much farther to 

 the west. The commonest species at Ega is Cuvier's 



* Ramphastos Cuvieri, Pteroglossus Beauharnaisii, Pt. Langsclorfii, 

 Pt. castanotis, Pt. flavirostris. Further westward, namely, near St. 

 Paulo, a sixth species makes its appearance, the Pteroglossus Hum- 

 boldtii. 



