376 
NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
CHAP. 
The Ibises doubtless undertake these voyages 
from the testimony and under the guidance of the 
elders, far more than from any inherited know- 
ledge or instinct ; whereas the flights of butterflies 
one would think must be directed by instinct alone, 
without any aid from experience. 
Many mammals wander far in search of food ; 
and some that go in bands, such as wild Pigs and 
some Monkeys, have known feeding -places at 
certain times of the year, when some particular 
kind of fruit is in season there ; so that the ex- 
perienced Indian hunter often knows in what 
direction to bend his steps to fall in with a certain 
class of game. It is well known how fond all 
animals are of the Alligator pear, which is the fruit 
of a large Laurel i^Persea gratissima). I have seen 
cats prefer it to every other kind of food ; and the 
wild cat-like animals are said to be all passionately 
fond of it. I have been told by an Indian that in 
the forests between the Uaupes and the Japura, he 
once came on four Jaguars under a wild Alligator 
pear tree, gnaw^ing the fallen fruits and snarling 
over them as so many cats might do. I have 
gathered flowers of at least four species of Persea, 
but was never fortunate enough to find one of them 
with ripe fruit ; so that I have missed seeing the 
concourse of animals of many kinds which I am 
assured assemble in and under those trees, attracted 
by the fruit. While speaking of fruit-eating car- 
nivora, it is worth mentioning that dogs in South 
America often take naturally to eating fruit. I had 
in Peru a fine Spanish spaniel who, so long as he 
could get ripe plantains, asked for no better food. 
He would hold them between his paws and pull off 
