372 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI. 



close, warm, and reeking ; and the hum and chirp of 

 insects and birds cause a continual din. The small 

 patch of weedy ground around the village swarms with 

 plovers, sandpipers, striped herons, and scissor-tailed fly- 

 catchers ; and alligators are always seen floating lazily 

 on the surface of the river in front of the houses. 



On landing, I presented myself to Senhor Paulo Bitan- 

 court, a good-natured half-caste, director of Indians 

 of the neighbouring river Issa, who quickly ordered 

 a small house to be cleared for me. This exhilarating 

 abode contained only one room, the walls of which 

 were disfigured by large and ugly patches of mud, the 

 work of white ants. The floor was the bare earth, dirty 

 and damp ; the wretched chamber was darkened by 

 a sheet of calico being stretched over the windows, 

 a plan adopted here to keep out the Pium-flies, which 

 float about in all shady places like thin clouds of smoke, 

 rendering all repose impossible in the daytime wher- 

 ever they can effect an entrance. My baggage was soon 

 landed, and before the steamer departed I had taken 

 gun, insect-net, and game-bag, to make a preliminary 

 exploration of my new locality. 



I remained here nineteen days, and, considering the 

 shortness of the time, made a very good collection of 

 monkeys, birds, and insects. A considerable number of 

 the species " (especially of insects) were different from 

 those of the four other stations, which I examined on 

 the south side of the Solimoens, and as many of these 

 were " representative forms " * of others found on the 

 opposite banks of the broad river, I concluded that 



* Species or races which take the place of other allied species or races. 



