THE TROPICAL FOREST 115 



for robbing man when they can, rather than limiting 

 themselves to wild products. 



Not a few of the pigeons are arboreal. We may 

 mention especially the fruit-pigeons, found in South- 

 East Asia, and extending southwards to AustraKa. 

 The bill is distensible at the base to permit the birds 

 to swallow large fruits whole. 



Among the mammals we found that in addition to 

 the truly arboreal forms there were a number like the 

 chevrotains and agutis, which took advantage of the 

 shelter afforded by the dense forest, through which 

 their slender bodies permitted them to force their way. 

 Quite similar conditions occur among the game birds, 

 where various members of the pheasant family live 

 in dense thickets, through which their wedge-shaped 

 bodies enable them to travel easily. Such birds fly with 

 considerable reluctance, preferring to trust to the thick 

 cover unless danger approaches too closely. Among 

 such forms we may mention the wood-partridges of the 

 Malay region, the spur-fowl of India and Ceylon, the 

 jungle-fowl, the guinea-fowl of West Africa, and so 

 forth. 



Very remarkable is the condition presented by the 

 hoatzin (Opisthocomus) of South America, where the 

 young are hatched with claws on both the thumb and 

 index finger, which they use in climbing about trees, 

 after the fashion of a fruit-bat. The hoatzin is believed 

 by some ornithologists to be related to the game-birds, 

 but is a very primitive form. 



Among reptiles the crocodiles and their allies haunt 

 the lakes and rivers of forest regions, where they, he in 

 wait for the forest animals as they come down to drink. 

 A very curious arrangement of the breathing organs 

 enables them to drown their prey by holding the 



H 2 



