266 
WANDERINGS IN 
FOURTH 
JOURNEY. 
The 
Jacamar. 
nearly stranded on a sand-bank, and proceeded 
without loss of time to the forests in the interior. 
It was the dry season, which renders a residence in 
the woods very delightful. 
There are three species of jacamar to be found on 
the different sand-hills and dry savannas of Deme- 
rara; but there is another much larger and far more 
beautiful to be seen when you arrive in that part of 
the country where there are rocks. The jacamar 
has no affinity to the woodpecker or king-fisher, 
(notwithstanding what travellers affirm,) either in its 
haunts or anatomy. The jacamar lives entirely on 
insects, but never goes in search of them. It sits 
patiently for hours together on the branch of a tree, 
and when the incautious insect approaches, it flies at 
it with the rapidity of an arrow, seizes it, and gene¬ 
rally returns to eat it on the branch which it had 
just quitted. It has not the least attempt at song, 
is very solitary, and so tame, that you may get 
within three or four yards of it before it takes flight. 
The males of all the different species which I have 
examined have white feathers on the throat. I 
suspect that all the male jacamars hitherto discovered 
have this distinctive mark. I could learn nothing 
of its incubation. The Indians informed me that 
one species of jacamar lays its eggs in the w r ood- 
ants’ nests, wdiich are so frequent in the trees of 
Guiana, and appear like huge black balls. I wish 
there had been proof positive of this; but the breed¬ 
ing time was over; and in the ants’ nests which I 
examined, I could find no marks of birds having 
