316 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



It sits patiently for hours together on the branch of a tree, 

 and when the incautious insect approaches, it flies at it 

 with the rapidity of an arrow, seizes it, and generally 

 returns to eat it on the branch which it had just quitted. 

 It has not the least attempt at song, is very solitary, and 

 so tame that you may get within three or four yards of it 

 before it takes flight. The males of all the different species 

 which I have examined have white feathers on the throat. 

 I suspect that all the male jacamars hitherto discovered 

 have this distinctive mark. I could learn nothing of its 

 incubation. The Indians informed me that one species of 

 jacamar lays its eggs in the Wood- Ants' nests, which are 

 so frequent in the trees of Guiana, and appear like huge 

 black balls. I wish there had been proof positive of this ; 

 but the breeding time was over ; and in the ants' nests 

 which I examined, I could find no marks of birds having 

 ever been in them. Early in January the jacamar is in 

 fine plumage for the cabinet of the naturalist. The largest 

 species measures ten inches and a half from the point of 

 the beak to the end of the tail ; its name amongst the 

 Indians is Una-waya-adoucati, that is, grandfather of the 

 jacamar. It is certainly a splendid bird ; and in brilliancy 

 and changeableness of its metallic colours, it yields to 

 none of the Asiatic and African feathered tribe. The 

 colours of the female are nearly as bright as those of the 

 male, but she wants the white feathers on the throat. The 

 large jacamar is pretty common about two hundred miles 

 up the river Demerara. 



Here I had a fine opportunity once more of examining 

 the Three-toed Sloth. He was in the house with me for a 

 day or two. Had I taken a description of him as he lay 

 sprawling on the floor, I should have misled the world, and 

 injured natural history. On the ground he appeared really 

 a bungled composition, and faulty at all points ; awkward- 



