s wife may often be discovered
together tending their small family in some hollow trunk. Its cry is
wonderfully loud, considering its small size; and curious as it may
seem, is not unlike the roar of the jaguar. It can also hiss or spit in
the fashion of an angry cat, while it utters a curious mew resembling
the same creature. It sometimes gives a guttural, short, and
rapidly-repeated bark.

There are several species of night monkeys with very similar habits.

It is difficult, except when they are in captivity, to obtain a correct
idea of the habits of these interesting little, animals,--though, of
course, when they are tamed, they must abandon some of those they
possessed in a state of nature. Of their dispositions, however, a very
fair notion may be formed from the way they behave when in captivity.
The above descriptions refer only to a few of the numerous species of
monkeys which exist in the South American forests, but as typical forms
have been selected, a tolerable idea of the whole may be obtained.

PART THREE, CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

BIRDS.

HUMMING-BIRDS.

Most of the humming-birds found on the banks of the Amazon belong to the
genus Phaethornis; remarkable for their long, graduated tails, the
central feathers of which greatly exceed the others. Their nests are
curious and beautiful, being formed in a long funnel-like shape,
tapering below to a slender point. They are woven with great delicacy,
and attached to some twig, or hanging leaf, by means of spider's webs.
They are lined with a soft silky cotton fibre; and composed, externally,
of a woolly kind of furze, bound together with which appears also to be
spider's web.

One of the largest is the Eupetomena macroura, with a swallow tail, and
a livery of brilliant emerald-green and steel blue. When feeding, it
remains a shorter time than usual poised in the air before the flowers,
frequently perching, and occasionally darting after small insects flying
by.

When the orange-trees become fully covered with flowers, the
humming-birds appear in vast numbers. Their motions are totally unlike
those of other birds. So quickly do they dart backwards and forwards,
that the eye can hardly follow them. Even when poising themselves
before a flower, with such inconceivable rapidity do their wings move,
that even then their bright colours are scarcely perceptible; and anon
they shoot off to sip the nectar from another cup. Unlike the
systematic way in wh