10 WANDERINGS IN 



First woiiderful aiid beautiful productions of the feathered 



Journey. ^ 



race. Here the finest precious stones are far surpassed 



by the vivid tints which adorn the birds. The naturaUst 

 may exclaim, that nature has not known where to stop 

 in forming new species, and painting her requisite shades. 

 Almost every one of those singular and elegant birds 

 described by Buffon as belonging to Cayenne, are to be 

 met with in Demerara ; but it is only by an indefatigable 

 naturalist that they are to be found. 



The scarlet curlew breeds in innumerable quantities in 

 the muddy islands on the coast of Pomauron ; the egrets 

 and crabiers in the same place. They resort to the mud- 

 flats at ebbing water, while thousands of sandpipers and 

 plovers, with here and there a spoonbill and flamingo, 

 are seen amongst them. The pelicans go farther out to 

 sea, but return at sundown to the courada trees. The 

 humming-birds are chiefly to be found near the flowers 

 at which each of the species of the genus is wont to feed. 

 The pie, the gallinaceous, the columbine, and passerine 

 tribes resort to the fruit -bearing trees. 

 The vulture. You.nevcr fail to see the common vulture where there 

 is carrion. In passing up the river there was an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing a pair of the king of the vultures ; they 

 were sitting on the naked branch of a tree, with about 

 a dozen of the common ones with them. A tiger had 

 killed a goat the day before ; he had been driven away 

 in the act of sucking the blood, and not finding it safe or 



