Chap. YII. BIRDS. 277 



candelabrum. Cecropise of different species are charac- 

 teristic of Brazilian forest scenery ; the kind of which I 

 am speaking grows in gi'eat numbers everywhere on the 

 banks of the Amazons where the land is low. In the 

 same places the curious Monguba tree (Bombax ceiba) is 

 also plentiful ; the dark gi'een bark of its huge tapering 

 trunk, scored with gi'ay, forming a conspicuous object. 

 The principal palm-tree on the low lands is the Jauari 

 (Astryocaryum Jauari), whose stem, surrounded by 

 whorls of spines, shoots up to a gi*eat height. On the 

 borders of the island were large tracts of arrow-grass 

 (Gynerium saccharoides), which bears elegant plumes of 

 flowers, like those of the reed, and grows to a height of 

 twenty feet, the leaves arranged in a fan-shaped figure 

 near the middle of the stem. I was surprised to find on 

 the higher parts of the sandbank the familiar foliage of 

 a willow (Salix Humboldtiana). It is a dwarf species, 

 and grows in patches resembling beds of osiers ; as in 

 the English willows, the leaves were peopled by small 

 chrysomelideous beetles. In wandering about, many 

 features reminded me of the seashore. Flocks of white 

 gulls were flying overhead, uttering their well-known 

 cry, and sandpipers coursed along the edge of the 

 water. Here and there lonely wading-birds were stalk- 

 ing about ; one of these, the Curicaca (Ibis melanopis), 

 flew up with a loud cackling noise, and was soon joined 

 by a unicorn bird (Palamedea cornuta), wdiich I startled 

 up from amidst the bushes, whose harsh screams, re- 

 sembling the bray of a jackass, but shriller, disturbed 

 unpleasantly the solitude of the place. Amongst the 

 willow bushes were flocks of a handsome bird belonging 



