Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/356

 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 specimens for me; but, after the same man (who was a noted woodsman) brought me, at different times, three distinct species of birds as the Papá-uirá, 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 prey 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 structure 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 Tocáno 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 Pará, 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