458 



ANIMALS OF EGA 



guavas on trees in the gardens, but on comparing the seeds 

 taken from their stomachs with those of all cultivated 

 trees at Ega, I found they were unlike any of them ; it 

 is therefore probable that they generally resort to the 

 forest to feed, coming to the village in the morning to 

 sleep, because they find it more secure from animals of 

 prey than their natural abodes in the woods. 



Birds, — I have already had occasion to mention several 

 of the more interesting birds found in the Ega district. 

 The first thing that would strike a newcomer in the 

 forest of the Upper Amazons would be the general scarcity 

 of birds ; indeed, it often happened that I did not meet 

 with a single bird during a whole day's ramble in the 

 richest and most varied parts of the woods. Yet the 

 country is tenanted by many hundred species, many of 

 which are, in reality, abundant, and some of them con- 

 spicuous from their brilliant plumage. The cause of their 

 apparent rarity is to be sought in the sameness and 

 density of the thousand miles of forest which constitute 

 their dwelling-place. The birds of the country are gre- 

 garious, at least during the season when they are most 

 readily found ; but the frugivorous kinds are to be met 

 with only when certain wild fruits are ripe, and to know 

 the exact localities of the trees requires months of ex- 

 perience. It would not be supposed that the insecti- 

 vorous birds are also gregarious ; but they are so, numbers 

 of distinct species, belonging to many different families, 

 joining together in the chase or search of food. The 

 proceedings of these associated bands of insect-hunters 

 are not a little curious, and merit a few remarks. 



Whilst hunting along the narrow pathways that are 

 made through the forest in the neighbourhood of houses 

 and villages, one may pass several days without seeing 

 many birds ; but now and then the surrounding bushes 

 and trees appear suddenly to swarm with them. There 

 are scores, probably hundreds of birds, all moving about 

 with the greatest activity — woodpeckers and Dendro- 

 colaptidae (from species no larger than a sparrow to 

 others the size of a crow) running up the tree trunks; 

 tanagers^, ant-thrushes, humming-birds, fly-catchers, and 



1 Tachyphonus surinamus and cristatus, TanagrelJa elegan- 

 tissima. I very often found fruit-eating birds, such as Cassicus 



