112 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II. 



It settled on our backs by twos and threes at a time, 

 and pricked us through our thick cotton shirts, making 

 us start and cry out with the sudden pain. I secured 

 a dozen or two as specimens. As an instance of the 

 extremely confined ranges of certain species it may be 

 mentioned that I did not find this insect in any other 

 part of the country except along half a mile or so of 

 this gloomy forest road. 



We were amused at the excessive and almost absurd 

 tameness of a fine Mutum or Curassow turkey that ran 

 about the house. It was a large glossy-black species 

 (the Mitu tuberosa) having an orange-coloured beak 

 surmounted by a bean-shaped excrescence of the same 

 hue. It seemed to consider itself as one of the family : 

 attended at all the meals, passing from one person to 

 another round the mat to be fed, and rubbing the 

 sides of its head in a coaxing way against their cheeks 

 or shoulders. At night it went to roost on a chest in 

 a sleeping-room beside the hammock of one of the 

 little girls, to whom it seemed particularly attached, 

 following her wherever she went about the grounds. 

 I found this kind of Curassow bird was very common 

 in the forests of the Cupari ; but it is rare on the 

 Upper Amazons, where an allied species which has a 

 round instead of a bean-shaped waxen excrescence on 

 the beak (Crax globicera) is the prevailing kind. 

 These birds in their natural state never descend from 

 the tops of the loftiest trees, where they live in small 

 flocks and build their nests. The Mitu tuberosa lays 

 two rough-shelled, white eggs ; it is fully as large a 

 bird as the common turkey, but the flesh when cooked 



