IN THE DESERT 



the shade of these trees ; for me the Oiticicas were always oases of 

 refreshment after hours of wandering in the blazing sun, blindingly 

 reflected by the hot sand underfoot. I was glad to sit on the tall roots 

 and listen to the birds in the boughs or out in the sunlight. 



For I saw many birds in the Sertao. Here for the first time I was 

 able to admire the great Brazilian parrots, in their blazing livery 

 of blue, green and red, nibbling fruit or cleaving the air in swift and 

 splendid flight, but quite unable at any time to hold their tongues. 

 A characteristic parrot of the Sertao is the Jandaya, celebrated by 

 Alencar in his Iracema; for long after the lovely Indian maiden is 

 dead the bird calls her musical name in the wilderness. I was 

 enchanted by the magnificent contrast of the green back and the 

 yellow breast when I first saw this parrot. Here too we find the large 

 green Amazon parrots, which we know as among the best speakers. 

 In the Brazilian towns one often sees them sitting in the windows, 

 where they call across the street, in an amusingly genuine Brazilian 

 accent: "JVb e? No e?'' (Isn't it? Isn't it?) Expert bird-catchers take 

 the young birds from the nests in the hollow trees, and one day at 

 Rio Branco I was sorry to see such a bird-catcher enter the railway- 

 station carrying a long plank, to which two hundred of the poor 

 little creatures were tethered. 



Every moment pretty little doves fly up before the wanderers, 

 displaying their white, black-edged wings. These are "Scaly Doves" 

 (Rolinha cascavel), so caUed because each feather is bordered with 

 black, so that the plumage seems to consist of scales, reminding one 

 of the skin of the rattlesnake or Cascavel. Their cooing is like the call 

 of the quail sounded on a flute : gru gruu. 



A handsome bird whose crimson crest often enlivens the tracks 

 of the Sertao is the Cardinal Finch or Gallo da campina. Still 

 more splendid are the "Blue Ravens," large as magpies. The plumage 

 is mostly black and white, but on the head is a splendid blue. Another 

 and more remarkable bird is the "Sleeper." When first I saw this 

 glossy-plumaged bird, flecked with black, and adorned with a yellow 

 collar and a red, bearded beak, I was amazed. Like an apparition 

 he sat on a projecting bough, absolutely motionless, and allowed 

 me to approach quite closely. He really seemed asleep. But he can 

 be lively enough, as I reaHzed on another occasion, when a whole 

 flock of these birds flew through the bush with loud cries of tiimi, 

 tumi. In Sao Paolo I saw another species of bearded cuckoo or 

 "Sleeper," which nested in a hole in the ground, and was popping 

 in and out of it like a rat (Plate 28). 



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