Chap. II. 
THE AI^-ACONDA. 
113 
is drier and not so well flavoured. It is difficult to 
find the reason why these superb birds have not been 
reduced to domestication by the Indians^ seeing that 
they so readily become tame. The obstacle offered by 
their not breeding in confinement, which is probably 
owing to their arboreal habits, might perhaps be over- 
come by repeated experiment ; but for this the Indians 
probably had not sufficient patience or intelligence. 
The reason cannot lie in their insensibility to the 
value of such birds, for the common turkey, which 
has been introduced into the country, is much prized 
by them. 
We had an unwelcome visitor whilst at anchor in the 
port of Joao Malagueita. I was awoke a little after 
midnight as I lay in my little cabin by a heavy blow 
struck at the sides of the canoe close to my head, 
which was succeeded by the sound of a weighty body 
plunging in the water. I got up ; but all was again 
quiet, except the cackle of fowls in our hen-coop, which 
hung over the sides of the vessel about three feet from 
the cabin door. I could find no explanation of the 
circumstance, and, my men being all ashore, I turned in 
again and slept till morning. I then found my poultry 
loose about the canoe, and a large rent in the bottom 
of the hen-coop, which was about two feet from the 
surface of the water : a couple of fowls were missing. 
Senhor Antonio said the depredator was a Sucurujti 
(the Indian name for the Anaconda, or great water ser- 
pent — Eunectes murinus), which had for months past 
been haunting this part of the river, and had carried 
off many ducks and fowls from the ports of various 
VOL. II. I 
