of an Expedition up the Capim River. 489 



jamaicensis (the Giant Goatsucker). Its cry is " fo-fi-fi-fi- 

 hu-hu-hu/' the second part expelled slowly and so lengthened 

 that it is generally the only sound heard, while the first part 

 is audible only when the bird is quite near. 



Among the smaller species observed here, I noted two 

 yellowish Tyrannids, Lathria, one small blackish Thamno- 

 philus, Thryothorus genibarbis, Tachycineta albiventris, Atti- 

 cora fasciata, and Stelgidopteryx ruficollis. The acquisitions 

 of the larger forms of birds were more important, as shown 

 by the following list : — Mitua mitu, Penelope super ciliarts, 

 Crax fasciolata, Urubitinga zonura, Ibycter americanus, 

 Trogon viridis, Tinamus solitarius, Falco rufigularis, and 

 Psophia obscura. 



The Trumpeters {Psophia) collected on the Upper Capim 

 River proved to be of a certain importance in clearing up 

 doubts about the specific distinctness of P. viridis Spix and 

 P. obscura Natterer, especially concerning the validity of 

 the latter, which was doubted even as recently as the date of 

 vol. xxiii. of the British Museum Catalogue*. Regarding 

 these " Jacamins " (charming creatures, of which I succeeded 

 in bringing two living specimens to Para), a droll story may 

 be related. One of my Indian hunters brought me one of 

 these " Jacamins/' dead. At first sight I was agreeably 

 surprised, but was much disappointed on discovering that the 

 bird had its logs cut off. Blaming the Indian, I enquired 

 the reason of such a barbarous act. The Indian's reply was : 

 " I considered that the legs were too long, and being good 

 for nothing, I thought it better to cut them off." I was at 

 once disarmed by this naive explanation, characteristic of 

 the ingenuous mind of these people, so different from ours. 



At their homes our Tembe Indians were always clad in 

 a pair of short breeches, at least when in our company, but 

 as soon as they entered the forest they always took these 

 garments off, and, rolling them up into a small packet, 

 fastened them by means of a liane round their bodies, and 

 remained entirely naked. When asked the reason of doing 

 this they informed me that it was in order to protect 

 * Qf. Sc&ter, Ibis, L898, p. 320. 



SER. VIII. VOL. III. 2 K 



