124 Through the BraziHan Wilderness 



although hot, are also healthy; and, moreover, the mos- 

 quitoes, in most places, are not in sufficient numbers to 

 be a serious pest, although of course there must be nets 

 for protection against them at night. The country is 

 excellently suited for settlement, and offers a remarkable 

 field for cattle-growing. Moreover, it is a paradise for 

 water-birds and for many other kinds of birds, and for 

 many mammals. It is literally an ideal place in which a 

 field naturalist could spend six months or a year. It is 

 readily accessible, it offers an almost virgin field for 

 work, and the life would be healthy as well as delight- 

 fully attractive. The man should have a steam-launch, 

 In it he could with comfort cover all parts of the coun- 

 try from south of Coimbra to north of Cuyaba and 

 Caceres. There would have to be a good deal of collect- 

 ing (although nothing in the nature of butchery should 

 be tolerated), for the region has only been superficially 

 worked, especially as regards mammals. But if the man 

 were only a collector he would leave undone the part of 

 the work best worth doing. The region offers extraor- 

 dinary opportunities for the study of the life-histories of 

 birds which, because of their size, their beauty, or their 

 habits, are of exceptional interest. All kinds of prob- 

 lems would be worked out. For example, on the morn- 

 ing of the 3d, as we were ascending the Paraguay, we 

 again and again saw in the trees on the bank big nests 

 of sticks, into and out of which parakeets were flying by 

 the dozen. Some of them had straws or twigs in their 

 bills. In some of the big globular nests we could make 

 out several holes of exit or entrance. Apparently these 

 parakeets were building or remodelling communal nests; 



