Natural-History Collectors. 3725 



and bog, over ground strewed with thorny shrubs and dead trunks of 

 large trees, which, as you climb over them, sink beneath you in a mass 

 of rotten wood, displaying the nest of a spider as large as your hand 

 (some of which I now send), — the hours of gloomy wandering in the 

 dark forest, where you cannot see ten yards before you for creepers, 

 — and the danger of being lost for days and weeks, as has been my 

 own case, — are enough to enhance the price of the hard-earned spe- 

 cimens. 



" Whilst staying at an 'Estrancia,' in the hilly country on the south 

 side of the river Guayba, I had an opportunity of seeing numbers of 

 the Rhea, [Rhea Americana) ; but I was surprised to find how small 

 they looked, running along with raised wings over the campos. In 

 the neighbourhood of the villages they are not often met with, and at 

 all times are captured with difficulty. The Brazilian captures them 

 with the 'bolas,' riding at full speed until he is near enough to throw 

 it securely round the legs or neck. 



" I have been a great deal annoyed, and yet amused, with a singular 

 bird which frequents the swampy plains on each side of the rivers. 

 From its peculiar cry the natives call it the ' Cary Cary ; ' I think it 

 the Charadrius Cayanus of Latham. It is almost impossible to shoot 

 any birds wherever this noisy sentinel is found. I was riding one day 

 along the marshy plain, and saw a small flock of rose-coloured spoon- 

 bills quietly standing on a bank of sand about a quarter of a mile off. 

 I dismounted, and scrambled along on my hands and knees, with my 

 gun slung on my back, in hopes of getting within shot unobserved by 

 them or the ' Cary Cary ;' but I no sooner lifted my head above the 

 long grass for a sight, than a whole legion of them started up, with 

 one universal cry of Cary Cary, which sounds like ' take care, take 

 care ! ' and frightened away the spoonbills. Sometimes this bird as- 

 sociates with a species of Saurophagus, a common inhabitant of the 

 cleared land about San Leopoldo, and they go together in flocks. The 

 cry of this bird is peculiar, and equally warning of danger; it is 'Bern 

 te ve,' — I see thee well ! They will often proceed with you through- 

 out the whole day, and keeping in advance, just out of shot, will warn 

 everything of your approach. 



" Upon the highest branch of some dead tree, in the thickest parts 

 of the forest, sits a species of shrike, of a perfectly white colour, with 

 the bill and near the eyes of a bright green : the colonists call it the 

 blacksmith or ' Kling fels,' — voice of the rock. It will be heard 

 hammering and filing away, so much like a smith working on an anvil, 

 that I have often been deceived into a belief that it was a colonist at 



