138 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV. 



We stayed at this place all night and part of the 

 following day, and I had a stroll along a delightful 

 23athway, which led over hill and dale, two or three 

 miles through the forest. I was surprised at the 

 number and variety of brilliantty-coloured butter- 

 flies ; they were all of small size, and started forth at 

 every step I took, from the low bushes which bordered 

 the road. I first heard here the notes of a trogon ; it 

 was seated alone on a branch, at no great elevation ; a 

 beautiful bird, with glossy-green back and rose-coloured 

 breast (probably Trogon melanurus). At intervals it 

 uttered, in a complaining tone, a sound resembling the 

 words " qua, qua." It is a dull inactive bird, and not 

 very ready to take flight when approached. In this 

 respect, how^ever, the trogons are not equal to the 

 jacamars, whose stupidity in remaining at their posts, 

 seated on low branches in the gloomiest shades of the 

 forest, is somewhat remarkable in a country where all 

 other birds are exceedingly wary. One species of 

 jacamar was not uncommon here (Galbula viridis) ; 

 I sometimes saw two or three together seated on a 

 slender branch silent and motionless with the excep- 

 tion of a slight movement of the head ; when an insect 

 flew past within a short distance, one of the birds would 

 dart off, seize it, and return again to its sitting place. 

 The trogons are found in the tropics of both hemi- 

 spheres ; the jacamars, which are clothed in plumage of 

 the most beautiful golden-bronze and steel colours, are 

 peculiar to tropical Ameiica. 



September 18th. We stayed only twenty-four hours at 

 Juquerapua, and then resumed our downward journey. 



