704 



THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



zons, where it was always a treat to watch a the v? liite Cebus. We crossed over first to* 

 flock leaping among the trees, for it is the the mission village, Santa Cruz, which con- 

 most wonderful performer in this line of the sists of 30 or 40 wretched-looking mud huts, 

 whule tribe. The troops consist of thirty or closely built together in three straight ugjy 

 more individuals, which travel in single file, rows on a high gravelly bank. The place waa . 

 When the foremost of the flock reaches the deserted, witli the exception of two or three 

 outermost branch of an unusually lofty tree old men and women and a few children. A 

 he springs forth into the air without a mo- narrow belt of wood runs behind the village i 

 ment's hesitation, and alights on the dome of beyond this is an elevated barren campo- 

 yieldiug foliage belonging to the neighboring with a clayey and gravdiy soil. To thi, 

 tree, maybe fifty feet, beneath, all tne rest south the coast country is of a similar de- 

 following the example. They grasp, on fall- scription ; a succession of scantily-wooded 

 ing, with hands and tail, right themselves in hills, bare grassy spaces, and richly-timbered 

 a moment, and then away they go along hollows. We traversed forest and campo in 

 branch and bough to the next tree. The various directions during three days whh- 

 Caiararaowesits^name in the Tupi language, out meeting with monkeys, or indeed with 

 inacaw or large-headed (Acain, head, and anything that repaid us the lime and trouble. 

 Arara macaw), to the disproportionate size The soil of the district appeared too dry ; at 

 of the head compared with the rest of the this season of the year 1 hud noticed, in other 

 body. It is very frequently kept as a pet in parts of the country, that mammals and biids - 

 houses of natives. I kept one myself for resorted to the more humid areas of forest ; 

 about a year, which accompanied me in my we therefore proceeded to explore carefully 

 voyages and became very familiar, coming the low and partly swampy tract, along the 

 to me always on wet nights to share my coast to the north of Santa Cruz. We spent . 

 blanket, fe is a most restless creature, but two days in this way, landing at many 

 is not playful like most of the American places, and penetrating a good distance in 

 monkevs, the restlessness of its disposition the interior. Although unsuccessful with 

 seeming to arise from great nervous irrita- regard to the white Cebus, the time was not 

 bility and discontent. The anxious, pain- who'.ly lost, as I added several small birds of 

 Jul, and changeable expression of its counte- species new to my collection. On the second 

 nance, and the want of purpose in its move- evening we surprised a laige flock, composed 

 ments, betray this. Its actions are like those of about fifty individuals, of a curious eagle = 

 of a wayward child ; it does not seem happy with a very long and slender hooked beak, 

 even when it has plenty of its favorite food, the Rostrlnmus hamatus. The were perched 

 bananas ; but will leave its own meal to on fche bushes which surrounded a shallow 

 snatch the morsels out of the hands of its lagoon, separated from the river by a belt of 

 companions It differs in these mental traits floadng grass ; my men said they fed on toads .. 

 from its nearest Kindred, for another com- and lizards found at the margins of pools, 

 uioii Cebus, found in the same parts of the They formed a beautiful sight as they flew 

 forest, the Prego monkey (Cebus cirrhifer?), up and wheeled about at a gieat height in 

 is a much quieter and better-tempered ani- the air. We obtained only one specimen, 

 mal ; it is full of tricks, but these are gener- Before returning to Aveyros we paid an 

 ally of a playful character. other visit to the Jacare inlet, leading to 



The Caiarara keeps the house in a perpet- Captain Antonio's cattle farm, for the sake 

 ual uproar where it is kept. When alaimed, of securing further specimens of the many 

 or hungry, or excited by envy, it screams rare and handsome insects found there, land- 

 piteously ; it is always, however, making ing at the port of one of the settlers. The 

 some noise or other, often screwing up its owner of the house was nofat home, and the 

 mouth and uttering a succession of loud notes wife, a buxom young woman, a dark maine- 

 resernblmg a whistle. My little pet, when luco, with clear though dark complexion and 

 loose, used to run after me, supporting itself fine rosy cheeks, was preparing, in company 

 for some distance on its hind legs, without, with another stout-built Amazon, her rod 

 however, having been taught to do it. He nd lines to go out fishing for the day's din- 

 offended me greatly one day by killing, in ner. It was now the season for Tucunares. 

 one of his jealous' fits, another and much and Senhora Joaquiaa showed us the fly 

 choicer pet the nocturnal owl-faced mon- baits used to take this kind offish, which she 

 iey (Nyctipithecus trivirgatus) Some one had made with her own hands of parrots' 

 had given this a fruit, which the other cov- feathers. The rods used are slender bam- 

 eted, so the two got to quarrelling. TheNyc- boos, and the lines made from the fibres of 

 tipithecus fought only with its paws, clawing pineapple leaves. It is not very comzaoa 

 out and hissing like a cat ; the other soon for the Indian and half-caste women to pro- 

 obtained the mastery, and before I could in- vide for themselves in the way these spirited 

 terfere finished his rival by cracking its skull dames were doing, although they are all ex, 

 with his teeth. Upon this I got rid of him. pert paddlers, and very frequently cross wide 

 After I had obtained the two men prom- rivers in their frail boats without the aid oi 

 33fd, stout young Indians, 17 or 18 years of men. It is possible that parties of Indiac 

 age, one named Ricardo and the other Alber- women, seen travelling alone in this manner, . 

 to, I paid a second visit to the western side may have given rise to the fable of a nation 

 of the river iv my own canoe, being deter- of Amazons, invented by the fir*t Spanish 

 mined, if possible, to obtain specinitns of ^xolorers of the country. Senhora Joa^uina - 



