464 



ANIMALS OF EGA 



seen any notice of their intelligence and confiding dis- 

 position under domestication, in which qualities my pet 

 seemed to be almost equal to parrots. I allowed Tocano 

 to go free about the house, contrary to my usual practice 

 with pet animals ; he never, however, mounted my 

 working-table after a smart correction which he received 

 the first time he did so. He used to sleep on the top of 

 a box in a corner of the room, in the usual position of 

 these birds, namely, with the long tail laid right over on 

 the back, and the beak thrust underneath the wing. He 

 ate of everything that we eat ; beef, turtle, fish, farinha, 

 fruit, and was a constant attendant at our table — a 

 cloth spread on a mat. His appetite was most ravenous, 

 and his powers of digestion quite wonderful. He got to 

 know the meal hours to a nicety, and we found it very 

 difficult, after the first week or two, to keep him away 

 from the dining-room, where he had become very impudent 

 and troublesome. We tried to shut him out by enclosing 

 him in the back-yard, which was separated by a high 

 fence from the street on which our front door opened, 

 but he used to climb the fence and hop round by a long 

 circuit to the dining-room, making his appearance with 

 the greatest punctuality as the meal was placed on the 

 table. He acquired the habit, afterwards, of rambling 

 about the street near our house, and one day he was 

 stolen, so we gave him up for lost. But, two days after- 

 wards, he stepped through the open doorway at dinner 

 hour, with his old gait, and sly, magpie-like expression, 

 having escaped from the house where he had been guarded 

 by the person who had stolen him, and which was situated 

 at the further end of the village. 



The Curl-crested Toucan (Pteroglossus Beauharnaisii). — 

 Of the four smaller Toucans or Arassarls found near Ega, 

 the Pteroglossus flavirostris is perhaps the most beautiful 

 in colours, its breast being adorned with broad belts of 

 rich crimson and black ; but the most curious species, 

 by far, is the Curl-crested, or Beauharnais Toucan. The 

 feathers on the head of this singular bird are transformed 

 into thin, horny plates, of a lustrous black colour, curled 

 up at the ends, and resembling shavings of steel or ebony 

 wood : the curly crest being arranged on the crown in 

 the form of a wig. Mr. Wallace and I first met with this 

 species, on ascending the Amazons, at the mouth of the 

 Solimoens ; from that point it continues as a rather 



