•26 SANTAREM. Chap. I. 



into a steady drizzle, which continues often for the 

 greater part of the succeeding day. After a week or two 

 of showery weather the aspect of the country is com- 

 pletely changed. The parched ground in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Santarem breaks out, so to speak, in a rash 

 of greenery ; the dusty, languishing trees gain, without 

 having shed their old leaves, a new clothing of tender 

 green foliage ; a wonderful variety of quick -growing 

 leguminous plants springs up, and leafy creepers over- 

 run the ground, the bushes, and the trunks of trees. 

 One is reminded of the sudden advent of spring after a 

 few warm showers in northern climates ; I was the more 

 struck by it as nothing similar is witnessed in the 

 virgin forests amongst which I had passed the four 

 3 r ears previous to my stay in this part. The grass on 

 the campos is renewed, and many of the campo trees, 

 especially the myrtles, which grow abundantly in one 

 portion of the district, begin to flower, attracting by the 

 fragrance of their blossoms a great number and variety 

 of insects, more particularly Coleoptera. Many kinds of 

 birds ; parrots, toucans, and barbets, which live habitually 

 in the forest, then visit the open places. A few weeks of 

 comparatively dry weather generally intervene in March, 

 after a month or two of rain. The heaviest rains fall 

 in April, May, and June ; they come in a succession of 

 showers, with sunny gleamy weather in the intervals. 

 June and July are the months when the leafy luxuriance 

 of the campos, and the activity of life, are at their highest. 

 Most birds have then completed their moulting, which 

 extends over the period from February to May. The 

 flowering shrubs are then mostly in bloom, and number- 



