SOUTH AMERICA. 283 

 adoucati, that is, grandfather of the Jacamar. It is Fourth 



Journey. 



certainly a splendid bird; and in the brilliancy and 



changeableness of its metallic colours, it yields to none of 



the Asiatic and African feathered tribe. The colours of 



the female are nearly as bright as those of the male, but 



she wants the white feathers on the throat. The large 



Jacamar is pretty common about two hundred miles up 



the river Demerara. 



Here I had a fine opportunity once more of examining The three- 

 toed Sloth. 



the three-toed Sloth. He was in the house with me 

 for a day or two. Had I taken a description of him 

 as he lay sprawling on the floor, I should have misled 

 the world, and injured natural history. On the ground 

 he appeared really a bungled composition, and faulty at 

 all points ; awkwardness and misery were depicted on his 

 countenance; and when I made him advance he sighed 

 as though in pain. Perhaps it was, that by seeing him 

 thus out of his element as it were, that the count de 

 Buff on, in his history of the Sloth, asks the question — 

 why should not some animals be created for misery, 

 since, in the human species, the greatest number of indi- 

 viduals are devoted to pain from the moment of their 

 existence.^" Were the question put to me, I would 

 answer, I cannot conceive that any of them are created 

 for misery. That thousands live in misery there can 

 be no doubt ; but then, misery has overtaken them 

 in their path through life, and wherever man has 



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