Miscellaneous. 495 



in trees ; two specimens I climbed up after and waited for ; I then 

 adopted a long pole which 1 left at a tree they frequented, and by 

 means of persevering with it every day for near a month have got a 

 good series : the sexes I have no doubt whatever about, though I 

 have not taken them in copula ; the female flies lower and is easier 

 to take than the male. The allied species (606 *) was rather abundant 

 at Montealegre ; the orange Heliconia-like insect occurred there plenti- 

 fully. Of all new species and others which I know to be good, I have 

 sent plenty ; of old things I have sent a few only. 



" In the ErycinidcB there are a great many species fresh to me, and 

 I hope some neiv to Europe : I have now made descriptions of all the 

 species sent, so that should I be obliged again to send home my 

 duplicates or lose any of them, I can still recognize the species. 

 The handsome species I hope will sell well. In box No. 3. I have 

 put a lot of miscellaneous insects, which please take out and dispose 

 of. There is also a small stuffed alligator, a species I think they have 

 not in the Museum ; it is the Jacare tinga, of which the tail is eaten 

 and is very good ; they are an immense deal of trouble in skinning. I 

 have sent also a larger one, which I think is the common species ; 

 also a tortoise-shell and a few vertebrae of the large alligator of the 

 Amazon I have put in to fill up ; perhaps they may be interesting to 

 geologists to compare with those of fossil Sauria. Shells there are 

 none here. There are two painted calabashes in paper with your 

 name outside ; please accept them as a specimen of the Indian girls' 

 work at Montealegre ; the varnish, colours, &c., are all made by them- 

 selves from the leaves and bark of different trees and herbs ; they paint 

 them with bits of stick and feathers, and the patterns are all their 

 own design ; they are the usual drinking-vessels here, but less orna- 

 mented for common use. I am much in want of some work on the 

 species of butterflies ; I think the ' Encyclopedic Methodique,' vol. ix. 

 by Godart, is the only thing that will do. The leaf in the box is a 

 segment of the Victoria regia ; if any one wants it, you may sell it." 



" Barra de Rio Negro (1000 miles above Para), March 20, 1850. 



"After sending off the box from Santarem (which I trust you 

 have received safe), I was delayed a fortnight waiting for men to go 

 up the river. After great difficulty I obtained them, but to Obidos 

 only, a distance of about eighty miles (three days) ; there I was delayed 

 four days, and then got others another stage of four days on to Villa 

 Nova. There I was delayed a week, and was there indebted to the 

 kindness of a trader, who lent me some of his men to get on to Barra. 

 Now however the rains and head winds had set in, so that after rather 

 an unpleasant journey owing to wet and mosquitoes, we arrived at 

 Barra on the 30th of Dec. in thirty-four days from Santarem. I was 

 so anxious to reach here before the wet season had regularly set in, 

 that I never wasted an hour to go on shore but once a day to cook, 

 so that I literally collected nothing on the road except at Villa Nova, 

 where we had tolerably fine weather. After the muddy, monotonous, 

 mosquito-swarming Amazon, it was with great pleasure we found 



* This is Callithea Leprieurii, Feisthamel, also veiy rare. — S. S. 



