in North-eastern Brazil. 313 



personally some part of the tropics — by making a short ex- 

 cursion to the provinces o£ Pernambuco andParahyba do Norte 

 in Brazil^ some account of my ornithological doings there may 

 be acceptable to my brother members of the B. O. U. 



Although Pernambuco is situated nearer to Europe than any 

 other important city in South America, and is, indeed, the 

 first port usually touched at in that continent by the various 

 lines of mail-steamers to the Brazilian Empire and Biver 

 Plate, very little appears to be known as regards any branches 

 of its natural history. Mr. Darwin was there for a few days 

 on his homeward voyage in the ' Beagle,'' and has given us, 

 in his ' JournaP'^, some account of it, but he says nothing 

 about its zoology. Swainson, in 1817, visited this part of 

 Brazil t and collected some bird-skins, some of which are now, 

 I believe, in the Cambridge Museum, Collections of bird-skins 

 made in this locality have also from time to time come into the 

 hands of Parzudaki and other dealers, but nothing, I believe, 

 has been recorded of the avifauna of the district. Pernam- 

 buco being thus, as was pointed out to me by Mr. Sclater, 

 comparatively little known and easily accessible from this 

 country, I determined on making a short trip there. I left 

 England accordingly on June 24th, in the Boyal Mail Steamer 

 ' Guadiana,"" and arrived at Lisbon five days afterwards. Here 

 I landed for a few hours, and of course called on the well- 

 known Portuguese naturalist. Professor Barboza du Bocage. 

 Unfortunately, however, it was a Saint's day, or some similar 

 "festa," and he was absent in the country and the Museum 

 closed. The only birds of interest I saw at Lisbon were 

 three nice living Blue Magpies {Cyanopica cooki) in one of 

 the numerous bird-shops near the river. Stormy Petrels 

 (Proceilaria pelayica ?) had appeared on June 26th in the 

 Bay of Biscay, and followed the ship for a day or two to 

 Carril, and now, after leaving Lisbon, they were again seen 

 once or twice. St. Vincent was reached on July 5tli; but 

 unfortunately the ship was put into quarantine, having 

 taken on board a passenger from the Lazaretto at Lisbon ; 



* Nat. Voy. (1870) pp. 497-499. 



t Lardner's Cab. Oycl, " Tax. and Bioo;r. of Nat." p. 344. 



