220 ACROSS NHAMBIQUARA LAND [chap, vii 



metallic notes. There was also a tiny, soft- tailed wood- 

 pecker, no larger than a kinglet ; a queer humming-bird 

 with a slightly flexible bill ; and many species of ant- 

 thrush, tanager, manakin, and tody. Among these 

 unfamiliar forms was a vireo, looking much Uke our 

 solitary vireo. At one camp Cherrie collected a dozen 

 perching birds ; Miller a beautiful little rail ; and Kermit, 

 with the small Liiger belt-rifle, a handsome curassow, 

 nearly as big as a turkey, out of which, after it had been 

 skinned, the cook made a delicious canja, the thick 

 Brazilian soup of fowl and rice than which there is 

 nothing better of its kind. All these birds were new to 

 the collection — no naturaUsts had previously worked 

 this region — so that the afternoon's work represented 

 nine species new to the collection, six new genera, and 

 a most excellent soup. 



Two days after leaving Campos Novos we reached 



VUhena, where there is a telegraph station. We camped 



once at a small river named by Colonel Rondon the 



" Twelfth of October," because he reached it on the day 



Columbus discovered America — I had never before 



known what day it was ! — and once at the foot of a hill 



which he had named after Lyra, his companion in the 



exploration. The two days' march — really one full day 



and part of two others — was through beautiful country, 



and we enjoyed it thoroughly, although there were 



occasional driving rain-storms, when the rain came in 



almost level sheets and drenched eveiyone and every- 



tliing. The country was like that around Campos Novos, 



and offered a striking contrast to the level, barren, sandy 



wastes of the chapadao, which is a healthy region, 



where great industrial centres can arise, but not suited 



for extensive agriculture as are the lowland flats. For 



these forty-eight hours the trail chmbed into and out 



