176 LOWER AMAZONS—OBYDOS TO MANAOS. Cuap. VII. 
Like its congeners, it keeps together in small troops, and runs along 
the main boughs of the loftier trees, climbing perpendicular trunks, but 
never taking flying leaps. The locality seemed to be a poor one for 
birds and insects. I do not know how far this apparent scarcity is 
attributable to the rainy weather which prevailed, and to the unfavour- 
able time of the year. The months spent here (from January to March) 
I always found to be the best for collecting Coleopterous insects in this 
climate, but they are not so well for other orders of insects or for birds, 
which abound most from July to October. ) 
The forest was very pleasant for rambling. In some directions 
broad pathways led down gentle slopes, through what one might fancy 
were interminable shrubberies of evergreens, to moist hollows where 
springs of water bubbled up, or shallow brooks ran over their beds of 
clean white sand. But the most beautiful road was one that ran 
through the heart of the forest to a waterfall, which the citizens of Barra 
consider as the chief natural curiosity of their neighbourhood. The 
waters of one of the large rivulets which traverse the gloomy wilderness 
here fall over a ledge of rock about ten feet high. It is not the cas- 
cade itself, but the noiseless solitude, and the marvellous diversity and 
richness of trees, foliage and flowers, encircling the water basin, that 
form the attraction of the place. Families make picnic excursions to 
this spot; and the gentlemen—it is said the ladies also—spend the 
sultry hours of midday bathing in the cold and bracing waters. ‘The 
place is classic ground to the naturalist, from having been a favourite 
spot with the celebrated travellers Spix and Martius, during their stay at 
Barra in 1820. Von Martius was so much impressed by its magical 
beauty, that he commemorated the visit by making a sketch of the 
scenery serve as a background in one of the plates of his great work on 
the palms. 
Birds and insects, however, were scarce amidst these charming sylvan 
scenes. I often traversed the whole distance from Barra to the water- 
fall, about two miles by the forest road, without seeing or hearing a bird, 
or meeting with so many as a score of Lepidopterous and Coleopterous 
insects. In the thinner woods near the borders of the forest many 
pretty little blue and green creepers of the Dacnidz group were daily 
seen feeding on berries, and a few very handsome birds occurred in the 
forest. But the latter were so rare that we could obtain them only by 
employing a native hunter, who used to spend a whole day and go a 
great distance to obtain two or three specimens. In this way I ob- 
tained amongst others specimens of the Trogon pavoninus (the 
Suruqua4 grande of the natives), a most beautiful creature, having 
soft golden-green plumage, red breast, and an orange-coloured beak ; 
also the Ampelis Pompadoura, a rich glossy purple chatterer with wings 
of a snowy-white hue. 
Aniara sepulchralis, Agra znea, Stenocheila Lacordairei, and others, confirm this 
view, being common to Cayenne and the Rio Negro, but not found farther west on 
the banks of the Solimoens. Mr. Wallace discovered that the Rio Negro served as 
a barrier to the distribution of many species of mammals and birds, certain kinds 
being peculiar to the east, and others to the west bank (“ Travels on the Amazons and 
Rio Negro,” p. 471). The Upper Amazons Fauna, nevertheless, contains a very large 
proportion of Guiana species. 
