870 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



Psophia, and Palarnedea), 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 

 between 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 



