SOUTH AMERICA. 299 



JOURNEY. 



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 sun- 

 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 the 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 descrip- 

 tion of the distribution of them, which would be 

 satisfactory to the reader. 



There is something remarkable in the great The great 



__. i 1 T i -i i i Tinamou. 



imamou, which 1 suspect has hitherto escaped 

 notice. It invariably roosts in trees ; but the feet 

 are so very small in proportion to the body of this 

 bulky bird, that they can be of no use to it in 

 grasping the branch ; and, moreover, the hind toe 

 is so short, that it does not touch the ground 

 when the bird is walking. The back part of the 

 leg, just below the knee, is quite flat, and some- 

 what concave. On it are strong pointed scales, 

 which are very rough, and catch your finger 

 as you move it along from the knee to the 

 toe. Now, by means of these scales, and the 



