nieuhoff's brazil. 719 



fingers in length, the remaining part being fix and an half. The neck and throat is 

 white, both fides of the headlblack, mixt with alh-coiour. On the far and undermoft 

 part of the neck are mofl dehcious, white, long, and thin feathers, fit for plumes : 

 the wings and tail are of an afh-colour, yet mixt with fome white feathers. All along 

 the back you fee long and light feathers, like thofe on the necks, but are of an afh- 

 colour : their flefh is very good, and of a grateful tafle. There is another kind of 

 thefe birds, which is fomewhat bigger than a tame duck. Its bill is ftraight, and fharp 

 at the end, of the length of four fingers and a half, with a double fet of teeth both 

 above and below : the head and neck (which is two foot long) Tefembles the crane, 

 with black eyes inclofed in a gold-coloured circle. The body is two foot and a half in 

 length ; the tail, which flands even with the extremity of the wings, four fingers. 

 The bill is of an afh-colour towards the head, the reft yellow, inclining to green. 

 The head and upper part of the neck are covered with long pale yellowifh feathers, 

 intermixt with black. On the back and wings it has afh-coloured feathers inclining to 

 yellow : but the legs and feet are dark grey : the flefh of this bird is eatable, and tafles 

 like that of a crane. 



The bird, called by the Brazilians Jabiru-Guaku, and by the Dutch, Schuur Vogel 

 (or barn-bird), has no tongue, but a very large bill, near feven foot and a half long ; 

 round and crooked towards the end, of a grey colour. On the top of the head is a 

 crown of white and green feathers. The eyes are black, behind each of which are two 

 great concavities inflead of ears. The neck is ten fingers in length, one half part of 

 which, as well as the head, is not covered with feathers, but with an afh-coloured, 

 whitifh, rugged fkin. This bird is of the bignefs of a flork, with a fhort black tail, 

 which flands even with the extremities of the wings. The other part of the neck, and 

 the whole body, is covered with white feathers, and thofe on the neck very long ones : 

 the wings are likewife white, but mixed with fome red. The flefh, if boiled, after the 

 ikin is taken off, is good food, being very white, but fomewhat dry. 



Brazil produces incredible quantities of other wild fowl of all forts, both great and 

 fmall, fome of which live among the woods, others in the water, but are very good 

 food. 



Of the befl kind are the thrufhes, called by them Bamodi ; pheafants of divers kinds, 

 called by the barbarians Magnagu, Jaku, and Arakua. 



Mouton is a bird of the bignefs of a peacock, but has black feathers ; the flefh is 

 very good and tender. Becaufe this country is full of fruit-trees and woody places, it 

 produces abundance of fparrow- hawks, and other hawks, called by the Portuguefe 

 Guavilon, and by the Brazilians Teguata and Inage, which are always at enmity with 

 the chickens and pigeons. 



Among thofe that live both in the water and upon the land, the wild ducks claim 

 the precedency ; fome of thofe are fmaller than the European ducks, others much ex- 

 ceed them, being as big as a goofe. They have alfo a fort of fnipes, called Jakana-miri 

 and Jakana-guaku. Befides thefe there are cranes, quails, and oflriges, and many 

 others of that kind ; the flefh of which is eatable, but not very toothfome. 



The reft of thefe birds are very greedy after the amber-gris, which is thrown afhore 

 by the boifterous fea, which they devour before the inhabitants can come thither to 

 gather it. They have alfo abundance of Parakets, or fmall parrots ; thefe never fpeak ; 

 but their parrots are extraordinary fine and large, fome of which learn to fpeak as dif- 

 tindly as a man. I have feen fome of thefe parrots exprefs every thing what they heard 

 cried in the ftreets very plainly ; and among the reft I faw one, which if put in a bafket 

 upon the floor, would make a dog that belonged to the fame houfe fit up before the 



bafkit 



