471- Dr. E. A. Goel(}i — Ornithological Results 



propose to offer to our dear ( Ibis' the ornithological part of 

 these results as a " primeur." 



The Capim River, so far as Ave knew, had never been 

 visited by a naturalist before, excepting by Alfred Russel 

 Wallace, who made an excursion there in June 1849. He 

 wrote about his journey in chapter v. of his interesting 

 book, 'Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro'"*. The 

 ornithological results of his visit were worked out and 

 published by Sclater and Salvin in the ' Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society of London/ 1867 1, in their "List of 

 Birds collected by Mr. Wallace on the Lower Amazon and 

 Rio Negro." 



Wallace fixed his headquarters at Fazenda Calixto, a 

 formerly important, but now entirely decadent, agricultural 

 property, near the village of Sta. Anna do Capim. I am 

 always interested in investigating the circumstances of 

 Wallace's visit. Among our boatmen we had descendants 

 in the first and second degree of Senhor Calixto, whose 

 opulence is described and whose hospitality is praised in the 

 above-cited book in warm terms. But these descendants 

 were in very poor circumstances — perhaps not much superior 

 to those of the most humble employes of Senhor Calixto of 

 Wallace's time. " Tempora mutantur ! " I often thought — 

 " What would Wallace say if he could meet with the sons and 

 grandsons of his host among the day-labourers, satisfied to 

 be enlisted as boatmen?" The Fazenda Calixto is now 

 totally ruined. 



Wallace did not pass beyond what we call the lower course 

 of the Capim River, so it is of no use to compare his itinerary 

 in 1849 with ours in 1897. Where he finished was just at the 

 beginning of our expedition. Even his mention of the smallest 

 affluent, " about half-a-day's journey further up the river" 

 {op. cit. p. 86), which he gives as the limit of his most 

 extended excursion, does not alter this. It was probably the 

 Igarape Carata-teua; the next right-hand tributary, the 

 Igarape Jaboty-maior, being too far off from Fazenda Calixto 



* New edition, 1889, pp. 77-92. First edition, 1853. 

 t P. Z. S. 1867, pp. 566-596. 



