402 EXPLANATORY INDEX, 



touched the ground, half opened its wings, thrust them 

 forward, and kept up a tremulous movement of the feathers 

 over the whole body. The bird is mostly found along the 

 coasts. 



Another species, the River Ibis (Ibis infuscatus), is found, 

 as its name imports, on the rivers of Guiana. It is larger 

 than its scarlet relative, but is not nearly so handsome, being 

 dull olive-green, with light green legs and beak. It goes by 

 the popular name of Ouri-curi, in consequence of its cry, which 

 is said to resemble these words. 



D. 



Deer. — Several species of Deer inhabit Guiana, but that 

 mentioned by Waterton is probably the Forest Deer (Cervus 

 humilis). It is a small animal, reddish fawn in colour, spotted 

 with white on the flanks, and with little straight horns. The 

 native name is Wiriebiserie. 



Diamond Rock. — This is a very singularly-shaped rock, 

 close to Pointe du Diamante, and having only a narrow 

 channel between itself and Martinique. The shape is roughly 

 conical, and is said to resemble the great Pyramids of Egypt, 

 but to be twice as large as the largest of them. 



" In the end of 1803," writes the late C. Kingsley, " Sir 

 Samuel Hood saw that Prench ships passing to Fort Royal 

 harbour in Martinique escaped him by running through the 

 deep channel between Pointe du Diamante and this same 

 rock, which rises sheer out of the water 600 feet, and is 

 about a mile round, and only accessible at a point to the 

 leeward, and even then only when there is no surf. He who 

 lands,, it is said, has then to creep through crannies and 

 dangerous steeps, round to the windward side, when the eye is 

 suddenly relieved by a sloping grove of wild fig-trees, cling- 

 ing by innumerable air roots to the cracks of the stone. 



" So Hood, with that inspiration of genius so common then 

 among sailors, laid his seventy-four, the Centaur, close along- 



