The Indians have noticed these miscellaneous hunting parties of birds, but appear not to have observed that they are occupied in searching for insects.They have supplied their want of knowledge, in the usual way of half-civilised people, by a theory which has degenerated into a myth, to the effect that the onward moving bands are led by a little grey bird, called the Uira-para, which fascinates all the rest, and leads them a weary dance through the thickets.There is certainly some appearance of truth in this explanation, for sometimes stray birds encountered in the line of march, are seen to be drawn into the throng, and purely frugivorous birds are now and then found mixed up with the rest, as though led away by some will-o'-the-wisp.The native women, even the white and half-caste inhabitants of the towns, attach a superstitious value to the skin and feathers of the Uira-para, believing that if they keep them in their clothes' chest, the relics will have the 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.Ionce 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 Uira-para, I gave up the story as a piece of humbug.The simplest explanation appears to be this: the birds associate in flocks from the instinct of self-preservation 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 commonest is Cuvier's Toucan, a large bird, distinguished from its nearest relatives by the feathers at the bottom of the back being of a saffron hue instead of red.It is found more or less numerously throughout the year, as it breeds in the neighbourhood, laying its eggs in holes of trees, at a great height from the ground.During most months of the year, it is met with in single individuals or small flocks, and the birds are then very wary.Sometimes one of these little bands of four or five is seen perched, for hours together, among the topmost branches of high trees, giving vent to their remarkably loud, shrill, yelping cries, one bird, mounted higher than the rest, acting, apparently, as leader of the inharmonious chorus; but two of them are often heard yelping alternately, and in different notes.These cries have a vague resemblance to the syllables Tocano, Tocano, and hence, the Indian name of this genus of birds.At these times it is difficult to get a shot at Toucans, for their senses are so sharpened that they descry the hunter before he gets near the tree on which they are perched, although he may be half-concealed among the underwood, 150 feet below them.They stretch their necks downwards to look beneath, and on espying the least movement among the foliage, fly off to the more inaccessible parts of the forest.Solitary Toucans are sometimes met with at the same season, hopping silently up and down the larger boughs, and peering into crevices of the tree-trunks.They moult in the months from March to June, some individuals earlier, others later.This season of enforced quiet being passed, they make their appearance suddenly in the dry forest, near Ega, in large flocks, probably assemblages of birds gathered together from the neighbouring Ygapo forests, which are then flooded and cold.The birds have now become exceedingly tame, and the troops travel with heavy laborious flight from bough to bough among the lower trees.They thus become an easy prey to hunters, and everyone at Ega who can get a gun of any sort and a few charges of powder and shot, or a blow-pipe, goes daily to the woods to kill a few brace for dinner; for, as already observed, the people of Ega live almost exclusively on stewed and roasted Toucans during the months of June and July, the birds being then very fat and the meat exceedingly sweet and tender.
No one, on seeing a Toucan, can help asking what is the use of the enormous bill, which, in some species, attains a length of seven inches, and a width of more than two inches.A few remarks on this subject may be here introduced.The early naturalists, having seen only the bill of a Toucan, which was esteemed as a marvellous production by the virtuosi of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, concluded that the bird must have belonged to the aquatic and web-footed order, as this contains so many species of remarkable development of beak, adapted for seizing fish.Some travvellers also related fabulous stories of Toucans resorting to the banks of rivers to feed on fish, and these accounts also encouraged the erroneous views of the habits of the birds which for a long time prevailed.Toucans, however, are now well known to be eminently arboreal birds, and to belong to a group including trogons, parrots, and barbets [Capitoninae, G.R.
