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DESCRIPTION OF ANIMALS, &C. IN BRAZIL. 



The following interesting sketch of the animated creation 

 in the wilds of South America, is taken from the Travels 

 in Brazil of two learned foreigners, Drs. Von Spix and Mar- 

 tius. 



" How different are the feelings of the traveller when he 

 passes from the dark low forests into the free and open tracts ! 

 On these serene and tranquil heights the noisy inhabitants 

 of the wood are mute : we no longer hear the howling of 

 herds of monkeys, the incessant screams of innumerable 

 parrots, orioles, and toucans, the far-sounding hammering of 

 the woodpeckers, the metallic notes of the uraponga, the full 

 tones of manakins, the cry of the hoccos, jacus, &c. The 

 more numerous are the humming-birds, buzzing like bees 

 round the flowering shrubs ; gay butterflies fluttering over 

 the rippling streams ; numerous wasps flying in and out of 

 their long nests hanging suspended to the trees ; and large 

 hornets hovering over the ground, which is undermined to a 

 great extent with their cells. The red-capped and hooded 

 fly-catcher, the barbets, little sparrow-hawks, the rusty red 

 or spotted Brazilian owl, bask on the shrubs during the heat 

 of noon, and watch concealed among the branches for the 

 small birds and insects which fly by ; the tinamus walks 

 slowly among the pine-apple plants, the cuapupes and nam- 

 bus in the grass ; single toucans, seeking berries, hop among 

 the branches ; the purple tanagers follow each other in amo- 

 rous pursuit from tree to tree ; the caracard and the caracau 

 flying about the roads, quite tame, to settle upon the backs of 

 the mules or oxen ; small woodpeckers silently creep up the trees 

 and look in the bark for insects ; the rusty thrush, called Joao 

 de Barros, fearlessly fixes its oven-shaped nest quite low be- 

 tween the branches ; the siskin-like creeper slips impercep- 

 tibly from its nest (which, like that of the pigeons, is built of 

 twigs, and hangs down from the branches to the length of 

 several feet,) to add a new division to it for this year ; the 

 Caoha sitting still on the tops of the trees, looks down after 

 the serpents basking on the roads, which, even though poi- 

 sonous, constitute its food ; and sometimes,when it sees people 

 approaching, it sets up a cry of distress, resembling a human 

 voice. It is very rarely that the tranquillity of the place is 

 interrupted, when garrulous orioles, little parrots and parro- 

 quets coming in flocks from the maize and cotton plantations 

 in the neighbouring wood, alight upon the single trees on the 

 campos, and with terrible cries appear still to contend for the 

 booty -, or bands of restless hooded cuckoos, crovvded together 



