544 CLASS AVES. 



nearly round. The structure of those parts which serve for 

 the mechanism of flight, in these birds correspond to their 

 mode of life. The wings and tail are extremely short, and 

 consequently little adapted to raise or support them in the air ; 

 but their legs are long and well adapted for running, which is 

 all that is necessary for their purposes. 



These birds are lively and agile ; they are almost always in 

 motion, but invariably at a distance from all inhabited places, 

 where they would not meet with a sufficiency of those insects 

 which constitute their subsistence. Their disposition is social. 

 They not only unite in small troops of the same species, but 

 also join with other birds of different species, but of their own 

 genus. Their plumage, not brilliant, seems, in fact, to indicate 

 this mixture ; for, with the exception of the larger species, 

 which are better characterised, it is rare to meet among the 

 small, two individuals which resemble each other perfectly. 

 This is the observation of M. Vieillot, and surely ornithologists 

 would do well to consider the great probability of similar 

 intermixture between birds of other genera, whose size, con- 

 formation, &c. is so much alike, before they proceed so rashly, 

 and on such trivial grounds, to the separation of species. 



The flesh of the ant-eaters contracts a strong odour of their 

 ordinary food, which renders it disagreeable. They are called 

 in the colony of Guiana Little Partridges, and the aborigines 

 of the country term them Palikou7-s. 



One of the species {Myrmothera Tinnicd) has a peculiar 

 habit worth remarking here. In the movmtainous and wooded 

 deserts of Guiana, where the Arada disturbs the traveller by 

 its shrill and repeated whistle, like a bandit calling his com- 

 panions of plunder, this bird gives the alarm, and appears per- 

 petually on its guard amid the dangers which surround it. It 

 causes the forests and the mountains to re-echo with sounds, 

 grave, yet at the same time sonorous and rapid, like that of a 

 bell repeatedly and quickly rung. M. Vieillot, who resided 

 in Guiana, was some time before he could imagine what animal 



