ME. R. SPRUOE ON IKSECT-MIGRATIONS IK SOUTH AMEEICA. 363 



fowls are to be met with on the banks of a river, and at what time 

 they must be sought for deep in the forest. I remember coming 

 on a flock of one of the small Turkeys called Cuyubi {Penelope 

 cristata, or an allied species), on the banks of the TJaupes, feeding 

 on the fruit of so deadly a plant as a Stryclmos (S. rondeletioides, 

 Benth. in PI. Spr.) ; but the succulent envelope of the fruit is in- 

 nocuous, like that of our poisonous Tew. I had been forwarned 

 that we might expect to find them at that particular spot, and 

 thus occupied ; so that we had our guns ready, and knocked several 

 of them over. Indeed they were so tame, or so gluttonous, that 

 when a shot was fired and one of them fell, the rest either took no 

 heed or only hopped on to another branch and recommenced 

 feeding ; and it was not until we had fired and reloaded three or 

 four times that the survivors took wing and flew ofi". 



On the slopes of the volcano Tunguragua, the steepest and 

 most symmetrical cone, though not the loftiest, of the Quitenian 

 Andes, I have seen flocks of another Turkey (allied to, but 

 distinct from, the TJru-mutun of Brazil) feeding on the plum-like 

 drupes of the Motilon*, and on the berries of an undescribed 

 Melastome. Besides these fruit-trees, there were also numerous 

 fruit-bearing bushes near, including some true Brambles, Whortle- 

 berries, and a Hawthorn, all of which probably aff"orded food to 

 the turkeys. This species seems to inhabit a zone, between 6000 

 and 10,000 feet, on the wooded flanks of Tunguragua, and within 

 those limits to make the perpetual round of the mountain, being 

 always found on that side where there is most ripe fruit to be 

 had ; and the birds are so tame and sluggish when feeding that 

 the Indians easily kill them with sticks. 



I should suppose that these and other gallinaceous birds have 

 their fixed centres of resort (breeding- and roosting-places) from 

 which they never stray far. Many Parrots and Macaws, I know, 

 have. On the western slopes of the Quitenian Andes, immense 

 flocks of Parrots ascend by day to a height of 8000 or 9000 feet, 

 where they ravage the fields of maize and other grain, but always 

 descend to certain warm 'wooded valleys, at 2000 to 4000 feet, to 

 roost. The flights of vast multitudes of garrulous parrots and 

 macaws to and fro between their roosting- and feeding-places, in 

 the grey of the evening and morning, is one of the first things 

 that strike the attention of the voyager on the Amazon. 



The periodical appearance of certain birds in a district has been 



* This name is giyen to Sytwplocos cernua, H. B. K., and also to two (or more) 

 species of Hieronpna, all bearing edible drupes. 



