370 A 'JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
Psophia, and Palamedea), all of which are so remote from 
the gallinaceous types found farther north that they remind 
one quite as much of the bustard, and other ostrich-like 
birds, as of the hen and pheasant. They differ also from 
northern gallinaceous birds in the greater uniformity of the 
sexes, none of them exhibiting those striking differences 
be! 7'een the males and females which we see in the pheas- 
ants, the cocks of the woods, and in our barn-yard fowls, 
though the plumage of the young has the yellowish-mottled 
color distinguishing the females of most species of this fam- 
ily. While birds abounded in such numbers, insects were 
rather scarce. I saw but few and small butterflies, and 
beetles were still more rare. The most numerous insects 
were the dragon-flies, some with crimson bodies, black 
heads, and burnished wings ; others with large green 
bodies, crossed by blue bands. Of land-shells I saw but 
one, creeping along the reeds ; and of water-shells I gath- 
ered only a few small Ampullariae. 
" Having ascended the river to a point nearly on a line 
with the serra, I landed, and struck across the campos on 
foot. Here I entered upon an entirely different region, a 
dry, open plain, with scanty vegetation. The most promi- 
nent plants were clusters of Cacti and Curua palms, a kind 
of stemless, low palm, with broad, elegant leaves springing 
vase-like from the ground. In these dry, sandy fields, ris- 
ing gradually toward the serra, I observed in the deeper 
gullies formed by the heavy rains the laminated clays which 
are everywhere the foundation of the Amazonian strata. 
They here presented again so much the character of ordi- 
nary clay-slates that I thought I had at last come upon 
some old geological formation. Instead of this I only ob- 
tained fresh evidence that, by baking them, the burning sun 
