In the number and variety of fishes the Amazon is especially prolific. Agassiz says: “The Amazon nourishes about twice as many species as the Mediterranean, and a more considerable number than the Atlantic Ocean from one pole to the other. All the rivers of Europe combined, from the Tagus to the Volga, do not feed more than one hundred and fifty species of fresh water fish, and yet in one little lake in the neighbourhood of Manaos we have discovered more than two hundred species, the greater part of which have not yet been observed elsewhere.” The largest is the river cow, or manatee, which is really a mammal, although it never leaves the water. This fish, or animal, oftentimes obtains a length of fifteen feet, and the meat is said to taste very much like coarse pork. The most valuable fish from a food standpoint is the pirarucu, which often grows to seven feet in length, and weighs as much as two hundred and twenty pounds. It has an elongated snout covered with bony plates or scales, the body being cylindrical. It is generally caught with a harpoon in clear water. The salted and dried meat brings a good price, and is sold everywhere along the Amazon, making one of the principal articles of food. The piranha is a salmon-like fish, which is rather feared for it has a habit of biting pieces of flesh from the limbs of bathers. It is very voracious in its eating and will take almost any kind of bait. In some places the natives capture a supply of fish by pouring the juice of a vine into the water, which seems to have the effect of an anæsthetic upon them. Turtles also abound, and are considered a great delicacy by the natives. A full grown turtle will reach three feet in length. They are most easily caught during the egg-laying season, when they are trapped on the sandy banks where they have gone to lay their eggs. The latter are greedily eaten, so that it is a wonder the species does not become extinct. The birds of this valley are brilliant in their plumage beyond those of any other portion of the world. Parrots and paroquets of all sorts abound in countless numbers, some of the former being of large size. The finest species is the hyacinthine macaw, which is three feet long from the beak to the tip of its tail. With its beak this bird can crack a nut which it is difficult to crack with a hammer. The toucan, with its curved beak almost as large as its body, the curious umbrella bird, the dancing “cock of the rock,” the humming-birds and many other species add bright flashes of colour to the otherwise sombre colours of the woods.