Chap. I. RIVER SCENERY. 29 



About the month of April, when the water rises to this 

 level, the trees are covered with blossom, and a hand- 

 some orchid, an Epidendron with large white flowers, 

 which clothes thickly the trunks, is profusely in bloom. 

 Several kinds of kingfisher resort to the place : four 

 species may be seen within a small space : the largest 

 as big as a crow, of a mottled-grey hue, and with an 

 enormous beak ; the smallest not larger than a sparrow. 

 The large one makes its nest in clay cliffs, three or four 

 miles distant from this place. None of the kingfishers 

 are so brilliant in colour as our English species. The 

 blossoms on the trees attract two or three species of 

 humming-birds, the most conspicuous of which is a 

 large swallow-tailed kind (Eupetomena macro ura), with 

 a brilliant livery of emerald green and steel blue. I 

 noticed that it did not remain so long poised in the air 

 before the flowers as the other smaller species ; it 

 perched more frequently, and sometimes darted after 

 small insects on the wing. Emerging from the grove 

 there is a long stretch of sandy beach ; the land is high 

 and rocky, and the belt of wood which skirts the river 

 banks is much broader than it is elsewhere. At length, 

 after rounding a projecting bluff, the bay of Mapiri is 

 reached. The river view is characteristic of the Tapajos: 

 the shores are wooded, and on the opposite side is a line 

 of clay cliffs, with hills in the background clothed with 

 rolling forest. A long spit of sand extends into mid- 

 river, beyond which is an immense expanse of dark water, 

 the further shore of the Tapajos being barely visible as 

 a thin grey line of trees on the horizon. The trans- 

 parency of air and water in the dry season when the 



