278 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



body of Simplicio and for the sunk canoe. He found 

 neither. But he found a box of provisions and a paddle, 

 and salvaged both by swimming into midstream after 

 them. He also found that a couple of kilometres below 

 there was another stretch of rapids, and following them 

 on the left-hand bank to the foot he found that they 

 were worse than the ones we had just passed, and im- 

 passable for canoes on this left-hand side. 



We camped at the foot of the rapids we had just 

 passed. There were many small birds here, but it was ex- 

 tremely difficult to see or shoot them in the lofty tree tops, 

 and to find them in the tangle beneath if they were shot. 

 However, Cherrie got four species new to the collection. 

 One was a tiny hummer, one of the species known as 

 woodstars, with dainty but not brilliant plumage ; its kind 

 is never found except in the deep, dark woods, not coming 

 out into the sunshine. Its crop was filled with ants; 

 when shot it was feeding at a cluster of long red flowers. 

 He also got a very handsome trogon and an exquisite 

 little tanager, as brilliant as a cluster of jewls ; its throat 

 was lilac, its breast turquoise, its crown and forehead 

 topaz, while above it was glossy purple-black, the lower 

 part of the back ruby-red. This tanager was a female; 

 I can hardly imagine that the male is more brilliantly 

 colored. The fourth bird was a queer hawk of the genus 

 ibycter, black, with a white belly, naked red cheeks and 

 throat and red legs and feet. Its crop was filled with the 

 seeds of fruits and a few insect remains; an extraordi- 

 nary diet for a hawk. 



The morning of the 16th was dark and gloomy. 

 Through sheets of blinding rain we left our camp of 



