Cuap. I. FAUNA OF SUBURBS. 7 
huge trees whose trunks taper rapidly from the ground upwards, and 
whose flowers before opening look like red balls studding the branches. 
This fine road was constructed under the governorship of the Count dos 
Arcos, about the year 1812. At right angles to it run a number of 
narrow green lanes, and the whole district is drained by a system of 
small canals or trenches, through which the tide ebbs and flows, showing 
the lowness of the site. Before I left the country, other enterprising 
presidents had formed a number of avenues lined with cocoa-nut palms, 
almond and other trees, in continuation of the Monguba road, over 
the more elevated and drier ground to the north-east of the city. On 
the high ground the vegetation has an aspect quite different from that 
which it presents in the swampy parts. Indeed, with the exception of 
the palm trees, the suburbs here have an aspect like that of a village 
green at home. The soil is sandy, and the open commons are covered 
with a short grassy and shrubby vegetation. Beyond this, the land 
again descends to a marshy tract, where, at the bottom of the moist 
hollows, the public wells are situated. Here all the linen of the city 
is washed by hosts of noisy negresses, and here also the water-carts are 
filled—painted hogsheads on wheels, drawn by bullocks. In early 
morning, when the sun sometimes shines through a light mist, and 
everything is dripping with moisture, this part of the city is full of 
life : vociferous negroes and wrangling Gallegos,* the proprietors of the 
water-carts, are gathered about, jabbering continually, and taking their 
morning drams in dirty wine-shops at the street corner. 
Along these beautiful roads we found much to interest us during the 
first few days. Suburbs of towns, and open, sunny, cultivated places 
in Brazil, are tenanted by species of animals and plants which are 
mostly different from those of the dense primeval forests. I will 
therefore give an account of what we observed of the animal world, 
during our explorations in the immediate neighbourhood of Para. 
The number and beauty of the birds and insects did not at first equal 
our expectations. The majority of the birds we saw were small and 
obscurely coloured ; they were indeed similar, in general appearance, 
to such as are met with in country places in England. Occasionally a 
flock of small paroquets, green, with a patch of yellow on the forehead, 
would come at early morning to the trees near the Estrada. They 
would feed quietly, sometimes chattering in subdued tones, but setting up 
a harsh scream, and flying off, on being disturbed. Humming-birds we 
did not see at this time, although I afterwards found them by hundreds 
when certain trees were in flower. Vultures we only saw at a distance, 
sweeping round at a great height, over the public slaughter-houses. 
Several flycatchers, finches, ant-thrushes, a tribe of plainly-coloured 
birds, intermediate in structure between flycatchers and thrushes, some 
of which startle the new-comer by their extraordinary notes emitted 
from their places of concealment in the dense thickets; and also 
tanagers, and other small birds, inhabited in the neighbourhood. None 
of these had a pleasing song, except a little brown wren (Troglodytes 
furvus), whose voice and melody resemble those of our English robin. 
* Natives of Galicia, in Spain, who follow this occupation in Lisbon and Oporto, 
as well as at Para. 
