in North-eastern Brazil. 353 



yellow feathers, are called " contrafeitos/' and are considered 

 to be both more beautiful and more valuable than those that 

 have not been thus tampered with. 



89. PsiTTACULA PASSERINA, 



I first saw the South- American ''Love-bird" on the road be- 

 tween Iguarassu and Olinda, and subsequently in nearly eveiy 

 place I stayed at. In the interior it is very abundant, flying 

 about in large flocks, often in company with the Brazilian 

 Canary [Sycalis flaveola), generally frequenting the gardens 

 or plantations round houses, especially where there are castor- 

 oil {Ricinus) trees. Its flight, though quick, is not pro- 

 longed. You see two or three alight in a bush or small tree, 

 which sit there quietly till they are joined by two or three 

 more ; then perhaps a few more arrive, and so on, till twenty 

 or thirty are assembled in the same tree, and after a while 

 they fly ofi*, together or in small batches, as they arrived. 

 Mr. Weaver, at Quipapa, told me that a few weeks before my 

 visit these Parrakeets were immensely numerous there, and 

 that the numbers we then saw were nothing to what there had 

 been previously, before the greater part had gone more inland 

 towards the Sertoes, as they do towards the commencement 

 of the^ dry season. The Brazilians call it ''Perriquito 

 Tapacu.^^ 

 u-f Eyes brown. 



90. Strix flammea. 



Whilst staying at Quipapa a boy brought me a specimen 

 of a Barn-Owl, which, as far as I could see, diff-ered in no 

 important respect from English specimens. 



-^91. GaMPSONYX SWAINSONI. 



I shot a single specimen of this pretty little Hawk out of 

 a high tree near Parahyba. 

 f I Iridesred; feet orange-ye|low; beak and claws black. 

 -f-9.2. Herpetotheres cachinnans. 



Whilst staying at Garanhuns I bought a beautiful pair of 

 living specimens of this Hawk, which had come, with some 

 other birds, from Aguas Bellas, a village in the Sertoes, some 



