362 



TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



Photo by P. G. H. 



FIG. 123. PERAI 



ly a person who has traveled in South America, who fails to 

 bring home some tale of their depredations. Col. Roosevelt 

 tells how, in the Matto Grosso, various members of his party 

 were bitten, and how wounded animals, even carmen, are 

 often partially devoured before they can be recovered from 

 the water into which they have struggled or fallen after be- 

 ing shot. Larger animals, peccaries and even tapirs, are 

 attacked when wounded and often dragged down ; and there 

 are frequent cases, where persons, idly trailing their hands 

 in the water from the side of a canoe, have lost one or more 

 fingers from the cruel jaws. I have seen large wounded birds 

 pulled under when only a few feet from the shore. 



The tails of animals seem to be a great attraction. Perai 

 have been known to bite the tails off dogs and many other 

 beasts, while, according to imThurn, the tail of an iguana 

 is a morsel of the utmost delicacy. Even alligators are not 

 exempt. In places where ducks are kept it is said that only 

 a short time elapses before the webs of their feet are eaten 



