82 ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 



(FluvicolinfB Sw.), analogous to our wagtails, run along 

 the sides of the rivers and lagoons, bent on the same 

 pursuit, and perpetually wagging their tails: the very 



singular genus Alec- 

 turus(fig. 32.), called 

 the "little cock" by 

 Azara, is found in the 

 same situation, and 

 has received this name 

 from carrying its broad 

 and compressed tail 

 erect, like that of our 

 domestic fowl. The beautiful little ground doves (Chce~ 

 mepelia Sw.), frequent all the open tracts, and are com- 

 mon even in the gardens and suburbs of the towns ; 

 while the humming-birds, although more numerous in 

 the interior, are nevertheless to be seen, wherever a tree 

 is in full blossom, darting about among splendid butter- 

 flies, and blue-winged bees, nearly as big as them- 

 selves. 



(116.) Water-birds are very local : we did not meet 

 with them in any abundance, in that range of coast we 

 traversed between lat. 8 and 23 S. ; but we are in- 

 formed by Mr. Hesketh, his Majesty's consul-general at 

 the city of Para, directly under the line, that the swamps 

 on the borders of the great river Maranon, extending 

 for hundreds of miles, are filled with innumerable 

 flocks of aquatic and wading birds, sheltered among in- 

 terminable forests of reeds, as old, probably, as the 

 creation. Here the splendid 

 scarlet curlews are found in 

 the greatest abundance ; and 

 probably these haunts, im- 

 passable to human feet, are 

 frequented by nearly all the 

 aquatic tribes of South Ame- 

 rica. In nearly all the 

 swamps and savannahs of Brazil is found the Martinico 

 Gallinule (Jig. 31.), or water-hen, whose dark purple 



