94 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



while the elephant has only forty ; and his claws are 

 disproportionably long. Were you to mark down, upon a 

 graduated scale, the different claims to superiority amongst 

 the four-footed animals, this poor ill-formed creature's claim 

 would be the last upon the lowest degree. 



Demerara yields to no country in the world in her won- 

 derful and beautiful productions of the feathered race. 

 Here the finest precious stones are far surpassed by the 

 vivid tints which adorn the birds. The naturalist may 

 exclaim, that nature has not known where to stop in form- 

 ing new species, and painting her requisite shades. Almost 

 every one of those singular and elegant birds described by 

 Buffon as belonging to Cayenne, are to be met with in 

 Demerara; but it is only by an indefatigable naturalist 

 that they are to be found. 



The Scarlet Curlew breeds in innumerable quantities in 

 the muddy islands on the coasts of Pomauron ; the Egrets 

 and Crabiers in the same place. They resort to the mud- 

 flats at ebbing water, while thousands of Sandpipers and 

 Plovers, with here and there a Spoonbill and Flamingo, are 

 seen amongst them. The Pelicans go farther out to sea, 

 but return at sundown to the Courada-trees. The Humming- 

 birds are chiefly to be found near the flowers at which each 

 of the species of the genus is wont to feed. The pie, the 

 gallinaceous, the columbine, and passerine tribes, resort to 

 the fruit-bearing trees. 



You never fail to see the common Vulture where there is 

 carrion. In passing up the river there was an opportunity 

 of seeing a pair of the King of the Vultures ; they were 

 sitting on the naked branch of a tree, with about a dozen 

 of the common ones with them. A Tiger had killed a 

 Goat the day before ; he had been driven away in the act 

 of sucking the "blood, and not finding it safe or prudent to 

 return, the goat remained in the same place where he had 



