SU THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VII. 



common in the forest ; it is the Midas bicolor of Spix, 

 a kind I had not before met with, and pecuHar, as far 

 as at present known, to the eastern bank of the Rio 

 Negro. The colour is brown, with the neck and arms 

 white. Like its congeners, it keeps together in small 

 troops, and runs along the main boughs of the loftier 

 trees, climbing perpendicular trunks, but never taking 

 flying leaps. The locality seemed to be a poor one for 

 birds and insects. I do not know how far this apparent 

 scarcity is attributable to the rainy weather which 

 jDrevailed, and to the unfavourable time of the year. 

 The months spent here (from January to March) I 

 always found to be the best for collecting Coleopterous 

 insects in this climate, but they are not so well for 

 other orders of insects or for birds, which abound most 

 from July to October. The forest was very pleasant for 

 rambling. In some directions broad pathways led down 

 gentle slopes, through what one might fancy were in- 

 terminable shrubberies of evergi-eens, to moist hollows 

 where springs of water bubbled up, or shallow brooks 

 ran over their beds of clean white sand. But the most 

 beautiful road was one that ran through the heart of 

 the forest to a waterfall, which the citizens of Barra 

 consider as the chief natural curiosity of their neighbour- 

 hood. The waters of one of the larger rivulets which 

 traverse the gloomy wilderness, here fall over a ledge of 

 rock about ten feet high. It is not the cascade itself, 

 but the noiseless solitude, and the marvellous diversity 

 and richness of trees, foliage, and flowers, encircling 

 the water basin, that form the attraction of the place. 

 Families make picnic excursions to this spot ; and the 



