Cuap. IV. THE GIPSY BIRD. ) 61 
fowl and pheasant tribes of the Old World, and affords another proof of 
the adaptation of the Fauna to a forest region. The Cigana lives in 
considerable flocks on the lower trees and bushes bordering the streams 
and lagoons, and feeds on various wild fruits, especially the sour 
Goyava (Psidium sp.). The natives say it devours the fruit of arbo- 
rescent Arums (Caladium arborescens), which grow in crowded masses 
around the swampy banks of lagoons. Its voice is a harsh, grating hiss ; 
it makes the noise when alarmed, all the individuals sibilating as they 
fly heavily from tree to tree, when disturbed by passing canoes. 
It is polygamous, like other members of the same order. It is never, 
however, by any chance seen on the ground, and is nowhere domesti- 
cated. The flesh has an unpleasant odour of musk combined with wet 
hides—a smell called by the Brazilians catinga; it is therefore un- 
eatable. If it be as unpalatable to carnivorous animals as it is to man, 
the immunity from persecution which it would thereby enjoy would 
account for its existing in such great numbers throughout the country. 
A great number of the insects which we found here were different 
from those of Parad. Species characteristic of the one locality were 
replaced by allied species in the other, a fact which would tend to the 
conclusion that the Tocantins serves, to some extent, as a barrier to 
migration. ‘This was especially the case with the Papilios of the group, 
which wear a livery of black, green, and red. P. Echelus of this group, 
which is so common at Para, was here absent, and its place supplied by 
the closely related P. AXneides. Both have the same habits, and seem 
to fill similar spheres in the natural economy of the two districts. 
Another handsome butterfly taken here was a member of the Erycinidze 
family, the Alesa Prema, which is of a dazzling emerald-green colour 
chequered with black. I caught here a young Iguana; Iguanas, how- 
ever, are extremely common everywhere throughout the country. They 
are especially numerous in the neighbourhood of villages, where they 
climb about fruit-trees overrun with creepers. The eggs, which are 
oblong, and about an inch and a half in length, are laid in hollow trees, 
and are very pleasant eating taken raw and mixed with farinha. The 
colour of the skin in the Iguana changes like that of the chameleon ; 
in fact, it is called chameleon by the Portuguese. It grows to a length 
of five feet, and becomes enormously fat. This lizard is interesting to 
English readers on account of its relationship to the colossal fossil 
reptile of the Wealden, the Iguanodon. The Iguana is one of the 
stupidest animals I ever met with. The one I caught dropped help- 
lessly from a tree just ahead of me; it turned round for a moment to 
have an idiotic stare at the intruder, and then set off running along the 
pathway. I ran after it, and it then stopped as a timid dog would do, 
crouching down, and permitting me to seize it by the neck and carry it 
off. 
We lost here another of our crew ; and thus at the commencement of 
our voyage had before us the prospect of being forced to return, from 
sheer want of hands to manage the canoe. Senhor Gomez, to whom we 
had brought letters of introduction from Senhor Joao Augusto Correia, 
a Brazilian gentleman of high standing at Para, tried what he could do 
