336 
ANIMALS OF EGA. 
Chap. V. 
effect of attracting for the happy possessors a train of 
lovers and followers. These birds are consequently in 
great demand in some places, the hunters selling them 
at a high price to the foolish girls, who preserve the 
bodies by drying flesh and feathers together in the sun. 
I could never get a sight of this famous little bird in 
the forest. I once employed Indians to obtain speci- 
mens for me ; but, after the same man (who was a 
noted woodsman) brought me, at different times, three 
distinct species of birds as the Papa-uira, I gave up the 
story as a piece of humbug. The simplest explanation 
appears to be this ; that the birds associate in flocks 
from the instinct of self-preservation, and in order to 
be a less easy pre}'^ to hawks, snakes, and other enemies 
than they would be if feeding alone. 
Toucans. — Cuvier's Toucan. — Of this family of 
birds, so conspicuous from the great size and light struc- 
ture of their beaks, and so characteristic of Tropical 
American forests, five species* inhabit the woods of 
Ega. The largest of all the Toucans found on the 
Amazons, namely, the Ramphastos toco, called by the 
natives Tocano pacova, from its beak resembling in 
size and shape a banana or pacova, appears not to reach 
so far up the river as Ega. It is abundant near Para, 
and is found also on the low islands of the Rio Negro, 
near Barra, but does not seem to range much farther to 
the west. The commonest species at Ega is Cuvier's 
* Ramphastos Cuvieri, Pteroglossus Beaiiharnaisii, Pt. Langsdorfii, 
Pt. castanotis, Pt. flavirostris. Further westward, namely, near St. 
Paulo, a sixth species makes its appearance, the Pteroglossus Hum- 
boldtii. 
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