122 CAPTAIN TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 



fishers, and many of the falcon tribe. A species of water- 

 hen is also ver}'^ numerous. 



Insects (with the exception of ants,) are not numerous, 

 there being no common flies, and very few musquitoes; 

 some moths, and beetles. 



The natives speak of a large species of snake, and some 

 of the early catholic missionaries make mention of them 

 from twenty to thirty feet in length, but we have seen no 

 other reptile than the water snake which I killed in the boat, 

 and small lizards. 



The natives are, Avith very few exceptions, drest in Euro- 

 pean cloathing, their only manufacture being a kind of 

 caps of grass, and shawls of the same materials ; both are 

 made by the men, as are their houses and canoes, the latter 

 of a high tree, which grows up the river, and appears to 

 be a species of the ficus, resembling that of the ficus reli- 

 giosa. These vary in their size, but they appear to be 

 generally from twenty to twenty-four feet long by eighteen 

 to twenty, and even twenty-four inches wide. Their drink- 

 ing vessels are pumpkins or gourds, and their only cooking 

 utensil earthen pots of their own making, in which they boil 

 or stew their meats, but more generally boil them. They 

 take no wild animals for food, a few birds excepted, but 

 they arc very inexpert in the use of the musquet ; and their 



