in North-eastern Brazil. 317 



and many other birds not to be found in tlie immediate 

 vicinity of Recife. 



After about three weeks^ stay at Estancia, I paid a week^s 

 visit to Cabo^ a station about twenty miles from Recife on 

 the Recife and Sao Francisco Railway, and the head quarters 

 of the staff of that Company. Mr. Wells Hood^ the general 

 manager of the line, Avith whom I had gone out from England^ 

 possesses a capital residence here, and was kind enough to 

 entertain me during my visit to Cabo. Here the country, 

 which*is generally flat so far, begins to rise in low, rounded 

 hills, of no great elevation, which are covered, on their tops 

 and steeper slopes, with the remains of the virgin forest. 

 Unfortunately the weather during my stay at Cabo was 

 exceedingly bad. It rained continuously for about three days, 

 which resulted in a general flood of all the low-lying ground 

 in the vicinity. Hence my collection of birds did not increase 

 much, though I believe from what I saw that Cabo would in 

 more favourable weather be a good locality. On August 12 I 

 returned to Estancia, making excursions thence to Caxanga 

 and other places in the vicinity. Having pretty well exhausted 

 the neighbourhood of Recife by this time, on August 18 I 

 started for a trip to Parahyba do Norte, the capital of the 

 next province to the north of Pernambuco, in company with 

 my friend Mr. C. A. Craven, of the Recife Gas Company, 

 whose acquaintance I had made in Recife, and whom I 

 found much interested in the natural history of the country. 

 Parahyba is about ten hours'" run up the coast, and I found 

 the steamers belonging to the Brazilian Steam Navigation 

 Company by no means worthy of the evil reports I had heard 

 of them. They are fine, well-built boats, receiving a heavy 

 government subsidy for each trip made. By their means 

 communication is kept up between the imperial capital and 

 the capitals of the more northern provinces of the empire 

 up to Para. Parahyba is situated in reality only about four 

 to five miles from the sea-coast, on a river which is navigable, 

 for these steamers nearly up to the town. The river, how- 

 ever, turns off" considerably to the north at about the point 

 where the town is situated, so that it is a trip of some ten to 



