278 BOUGUER's voyage to PERU. 



tinftlon to the ladeous moifture of their bark, which is prejudicial to many parafite 

 plants. 



We acknowledge, on entering thefe woods, the truth of the obfervation already 

 made by other travellers, that if the birds of America exceed ours in beauty of plum- 

 age, ours have the advantage, infinitely, in variety and fweetnefs of note. Inftead of 

 fong, nothing is heard almoft throughout the foreft, but a difcordant ftunning noife. 

 The clamour of the paroquets, which are feen here in great tribes, is particularly dif- 

 turbing. Thefe birds do not frequent the fea-fide ; to find them, we mufl penetrate for 

 fome leagues into the country^ I have frequently eat of the fmall green ones, and found 

 T*^*' them very good, though their flelh maybe confidered rather hard. The apes, alfo, 

 choofe to take tbemfelves far from the coaft, and generally follow the courfe of the 

 rivers and brooks. Here, alfo, you fee the Toucan, called by the natives the Preacher, 

 although he never opens his mouth. He bears no refemblance to any other bird, from 

 the monftrous fize of his beak, which is almoft as large as his whole body. Pigeons 

 are very common, and very good, fo are alfo ducks, principally thofe which the Spa- 

 niards name Palos Reales, and which are decorated with a creft. The Galinaflb is 

 found in many places here ; it is a fingular fpecies of the Coori, to the flefh of which 

 •they attribute different properties ; but it is rarely made ufe of, by reafon of its ftink- 

 ing fmell. It differs from ours by its fize, in which it is larger, and the head of it, 

 inflead of being covered with feathers, has fimply a black fkin upon it, of an helmet 

 form. 



The number of mifchievous terreftrial animals is very great here, particularly remote 



from the fea and the thick recelTes of the forefls, and where the trees are at their 



loftieft growth. The lion we fee there, is not one ; he has much more relation with the 



'Wolf ; and does not attack man. But the tigers are as large there, and favage, as thofe 



■ of Africa : of which, there has been at different times moft terrible proofs. When, in 



1740, I returned from Quito towards the fea, taking a northerly diredlion to meafure 



. the abfolute height of the mountains which had ferved for our meridian, I paffed by 



;Nigonas, which is, as it were, the centre of the Province of Emeralds, and faw there 



many perfons who had been lamed by thefe terrible animals : ten or twelve Indians had 



-been torn to pieces by them two or three years before. I proceeded farther, and fixed 



myfelf in a little ifland formed by the meeting of the two rivers of the Emeralds and 



Inca. In this ifland we imagined ourfelves perfectly fecure from any attack ; but, lo I 



the firft night the tigers fwam over to difpute our provifions with us, and carried off a 



part of them ; and we were under the necelTity every night of making a large fire as a 



protection. It is a bleffing thefe animals, like all thofe offenfive by the ferocity of their 



nature, are not teeming. Tigers are but few in Peru j but it requires but one or two 



of them to defolate a whole country. 



The Indians, who never crofs the deferts without being armed with a lance and 

 hanger, affemble themfelves at certain times to hunt thefe animals, and never fail, when 

 accidents have happened to imprefs them with the neceflity of doing fo. Much alfo is 

 to be apprehended from ferpents, which are here very common, and of many dangerous 

 fpecies ; among them the rattle-fnake, which will not, like the moft part of others, 

 turn afide from man. . Lizards are found here as large as your arm, but harmlefs. 

 We will now notice thofe divers fpecies of animals, of which fome are confidered am- 

 phibious. The Iguana has a thorny creft on His head and along his back : his form, he 

 is fo meagre and Ihrivelled, is truly hideous. I fufpeft he has the means, when he 

 fwims, of blowing himfelf up into a large volume, which gives him lightnefs, and in- 

 duces a belief that he walks upon the water as upon land. They eat of this animal, 



t4 and 



