324 Mr. W. A. Forbes on Eleven Weeks 



which probably extend over nearly the entire area of the 

 interior of the province of Pernambuco. The distance from 

 Macuca to Garanhuns is about 33 miles : after leaving 

 Canotinho, about an hour and a halFs riding from Macuca, 

 the aspect of the country begins to alter visibly. The soil 

 becomes sandy, and the vegetation generally lower and more 

 scrubby, with patches of forest in places. Great Cacti, too, 

 some 40-50 feet high, and forming large trees in some 

 places, become conspicuous features in the landscape, and two 

 or three species of Begonias also appear. In bird-life the 

 " Salta Caminho " [Zonotrichia inleata) for the first time 

 appears, hopping about the sandy roads, and marking the 

 changed nature of the country. 



Garanhuns is a large village (although called a city) of 

 perhaps more than 2000 inhabitants, and lies at an elevation 

 of about 3000 feet above the sea. The country round is 

 hilly, though none of the hills attain any great elevation ; 

 these are pretty uniformly covered with a thick scrub of low 

 bushes and aromatic herbs, with, in some places, small 

 patches of " matto." There is little water. The temperature 

 is noticeably'cooler than nearer the coast, though sufficiently 

 hot when the sun shines ; indeed, on account of its dry soil 

 and rather bracing atmosphere, Garanhuns is acquiring some 

 celebrity in Pernambuco as a sanatarium, during the dry 

 season, for the residents in the lower parts. I was most 

 hospitably entertained, during my week^s stay at Garanhuns, 

 by Senhor Doutor Jose Aloes Lima, the Juiz Municipal, who 

 most kindly placed an empty house at my disposal, where I 

 slept and kept my apparatus. The country round Garanhuns 

 seemed to be rather rich in birds ; but partly from the thick- 

 ness of the scrub, which in some cases was nearly impene- 

 trable, and partly, I think, from the recent occurrence of a 

 prolonged " Secca," or drought, during which everybody 

 who could went out and shot small birds indiscriminately, 

 thereby rendering them very shy, I failed to get several 

 species 1 saw there and did not elsewhere meet A\ith. A 

 more prolonged stay would, I feel sure, have added numerous 

 species to my lists. I also believe that Garanhuns would 



