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THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



house of Senhor Antonio Malagueita, a 

 mameluco settler whom we had been recom- 

 mended to visit. His house and outbuildings 

 were extensive, the grounds well weeded, 

 and the whole wore au air of comfort and 

 well-being which is very uncommon in this 

 country. A bank of indurated while clay 

 sloped gently up from *he tree-shaded port to 

 the house, and beds of kitchen- barbs extended 

 on each side, with (rare sight !) rose and jas- 

 mine trees in full bloom. Senhpr Antonio, a 

 rather tall iniddle-aged man, with a counte- 

 nance beaming with good nature, came down 

 to the port as soon as we anchored. I was 

 quite a stranger to him, but he had heard of 

 my coming, and seemed to have made prep- 

 arations. I never met with a heartier wel- 

 come. On entering the house, the wife, who 

 had more of the Indian tint ajnd features 

 than her husbanl, was equally warm and 

 frank in her greeting. I stayed here two 

 days. We had together several long and 

 successful rambles along a narrow pathway 

 which extended several miles into the foiest. 

 1 here met with a new insect, pest, one which 

 the nati\es may be tuankfui is not spread 

 more widely over the country ; it was a large 

 brown fly of the Tabanidse family (genus 

 Pangonia) with a proboscis half an inch long 

 and sharper than the finest needle. It settled 

 on our backs by twos and threes at a time, 

 and pricked us through our thick cotton 

 shirts, making us start and cry out with the 

 sudden 'pam. I secured a dozen or two as 

 specimens. As an instance of the extremely 

 confined ranges of certain species, it may be 

 mentioned that 1 did not find this insect in 

 any oLher part of the country, except along 

 half a mile or so of this gloomy foiest road. 

 We were amused at the excessive and almost 

 absurd tameness of a fine Mutum or Curas- 

 sow turkey that ran about the house. It was 

 a large glossy-black species (the Mitu tube- 

 rosa), having an orange- colored beak, sur- 

 mounted by a bean-shaped excrescence of the 

 same hue. It seemed to consider itself as 

 one of the family : attended at all the meals, 

 passing from one person to another round 

 ' the mat to be fed, and rubbing the sides of 

 its head in a coaxing way against their 

 cheeks or shoulders. At night it went to 

 roost on a chest in a sleeping-room beside the 

 ' aammock of one of the little girls, to whom 

 it seemed particularly attached, following her 

 'wherever she went about the grounds. I 

 found this kind of Currasow bird was very, 

 'common in the forests of the Cupari ; but it 

 js rare on the Upper Amazons, where an 

 allied species, which has a round instead of a 

 bean-sliuped waxen excrescence on the beak 

 (Grax globicera), is the prevailing kind. 

 These birds in their natural state never de- 

 scend from the tops of the loftiest trees, 

 'where they live in small flocks and build their 

 nests. The Mitu tuberosa lays two rough- 

 Bhelled white eggs ; it is fully as large a bird 

 as the common turkey, but the flesh when 

 cooked is drier and not so well flavored. It 

 \a difficult to find the reason why these su- 

 iJerb birds have not been reduced to dornesfc- 



cation by the Indians, seeing that they so. 

 readily become tame. The obstacle offered 

 by their not breeding hi connm mint, which . 

 is probably owing to their aibouul habits, 

 might perhaps be overcome by repeated ex- 

 penment ; but for this the Indians probably 

 had not sufficient patience or intelligence. 

 The reason cannot lie in their insensibility to 

 the value of such biids ; for the common 

 turkey, which has been introduced into tLe 

 country, is much prized by them. 



We had an unwelcome visitor while at 

 anchor in the port of Antonio Malagueita. I 

 was awoke a little after midnight, as I lay in 

 my little cabin, by a heavy blow struck at the 

 sides of the canoe close to my head, which 

 was succeeded by the sound of a weighty 

 body plunging in the water. I got up ; but 

 all was again quiet, except the cackle of 

 fowls in our hen-coop, which hung over the : 

 side of the vessel, about three feet from the 

 cabin door. I could find no explanation of 

 the circumstance, and, my men being all 

 ashore, I turned in again and slept till morn- 

 ing. I then found my poultry loose about 

 the canoe, and a large 'rent in the bottom of 

 the hen-coop, which was about two feet from 

 the suiface of the water : a couple of fowls. 

 were missing. Senhor Antonio said the dep- 

 redator was a Sucuruju (ihe Indian name 

 for the Anaconda, or great water serpent, 

 Eunectes murinus), which had for uiouihs 

 past been haunting this part of the river, and 

 had carried off many ducks and fowls from 

 the ports of various houses. I was inclined 

 to doubt the fact of a serpent striking at its 

 prey from the water, ana thought an alli- 

 gator more likely to be the culprit, although 

 we had not yet met with alligators in the 

 river. Some days afterward the young men 

 belonging to the different sitios agreed to- 

 gether to go in search of the serpent. They 

 began in a systematic manner, forming two 

 parties, each embarked in thiee or four 

 canoes, and starting from points several miles 

 apart, whence they gradually approximated, 

 searching all the little inlets on both sides the 

 river. The reptile was found at last, sun 

 ning itself on a log at the mouth of a muddy 

 rivulet, and dispatched with harpoons. 1 

 saw it the day after it was killed : it was not 

 a very large specimen, measuring only eigh- 

 teen feet nine inches in length, and sixteen 

 inches in circumference at the widest part of 

 the body. I measured skins of the Anacon, 

 da afterward, twenty-one feet in length and 

 two feet in girth. The reptile has a in >st 

 hideous appearance, owing to its being very 

 broad in the middle, and tapering abruptly 

 at both ends. It is very abundant in some 

 parts of the country, nowhere more so than 

 in the Lago Grande, near Santarein, where it 

 is often seen coiled up in the corners of farm- 

 yards, and is detested for its habit of carry- 

 ing off poultry, young calves, or whatever 

 animal it can get within reach of. 



At Ega a large Anaconda was once near 

 making a rneal of a young lad abuuc ten years 

 of age7 belonging to one of my neighbors. 

 '|ie father and his son went, as was their - 



