318 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



body, and black head and throat. Buffon mentions it as 

 coming from America. I had been in quest of it for years, 

 but could never see it, and concluded that it was not to 

 be found in Demerara. The bird is of a greenish brown 

 before it acquires its rich plumage. 



Amongst the bare roots of the trees, alongside of this 

 part of the river, a red crab sometimes makes its appear- 

 ance, as you are passing up and down. It is preyed upon 

 by a large species of Owl, which I was fortunate enough 

 to procure. Its head, back, wings, and tail, are of so dark 

 a brown as almost to appear black. The breast is of a 

 somewhat lighter brown. The belly and thighs are of a 

 dirty yellow white. The feathers round the eyes are of 

 the same dark brown as the rest of the body ; and then 

 comes a circle of white, which has the appearance of a 

 large pair of spectacles. I strongly suspect that the dirty 

 yellow white of the belly and thighs has originally been 

 pure white ; and that it has come to its present colour by 

 means of the bird darting down upon its prey in the mud. 

 But this is mere conjecture. 



Here too, close to the river, I frequently saw the bird 

 called Sun -bird by the English colonists, and Tirana by the 

 Spaniards in the Oroonoque. It is very elegant ; and in 

 its outward appearance approaches near to the heron tribe ; 

 still it does not live upon fish. Flies and insects are its 

 food; and it takes them just as a heron takes fish, by 

 approaching near and then striking with its beak at its 

 prey so quick, that it has no chance to escape. The 

 beautiful mixture of grey, yellow, green, black, white, and 

 chestnut in the plumage of this bird, baffles any attempt 

 to give a description of the distribution of them which 

 would be satisfactory to the reader. 



There is something remarkable in the great Tinamou, 

 which I suspect has hitherto escaped notice. It invariably 



