Notes on an Excursion on the Upper Amazons. 5725 



very great in every respect, as, independently of its rapid and sustained flight, it 

 grasps the small twigs, flowers, &c, upon which it alights, with the utmost tenacity. 

 It appears to be most active in the morning and evening, and to pass the middle of 

 the day in a state of sleepy torpor. Occasionally it occurs in such numbers that fifty 

 or sixty may be seen in a single tree. When captured, it so speedily becomes tame 

 that it will feed from the hand or mouth within half an hour. Mr. Gould having 

 been successful in keeping one alive in a gauze bag attached to his breast button for 

 three days, during which it readily fed from a small bottle filled with a syrup of brown 

 sugar and water, he determined to make an attempt to bring some living examples to 

 England, in which he succeeded ; but unfortunately they did not long survive their 

 arrival. Had they lived, it was his intention to have sent them to the Society's Gar- 

 dens, where they would doubtless have been objects of great attraction. 



Mr. Gould exhibited a highly interesting species of Cerioruis, which he had found 

 in the collection of Dr. Cabot, of Boston, who, with the greatest liberality, permitted 

 him to bring it to England for the purpose of comparison and description. For this 

 new bird, forming the fourth species of the genus, Mr. Gould proposed the name of 

 Ceriornis Caboti. 



Mr. Sclater read a list of upwards of sixty additional species of birds obtained by 

 M. Auguste Salle from the environs of Jalapa and St. Andres Tuxtla, which were 

 not included in his former Catalogue. 



Mr. Chitty read a paper on Stoastomidce as a family, and on seven proposed new 

 genera and sixty-one proposed new species, and two new varieties from Jamaica. 

 Mr. Chitty took an opportunity of recording his thanks to Dr. Livesay for the great 

 assistance his microscope and ingenious contrivances had afforded him in the exami- 

 nation and measurement of shells, enabling him to measure to the thousandth part of 

 an inch with the nicest accuracy. — D. W. M. 



Notes on an Excursion from Ega to Tunantins and Fonte Boa, 

 on the Upper Amazons. By Henry Walter Bates, Esq. 



On the 7th of November last I left Ega by the small Upper Amazon 

 bi-monthly steamer " Tabatinga," on an excursion to Tunantins, a 

 small village, about 240 miles a"bove Ega : there and at Fonte Boa, 

 on the voyage down, as well as at the mouth of the Jutahi, where also 

 I spent four days, I saw much that was interesting, and propose 

 therefore to give you a rough account of my trip. 



Ega, as those at home interested in Amazonian matters are now 

 perhaps aware, is the only place on the upper river at all endurable 

 as a residence for any time ; it is really a charming, quiet, cleanly 

 little spot, and being far within the mouth of a black-water river, is 

 nearly free from insect pests : all the villages above, up to Nanta, are 

 nearly uninhabitable, — night and day there is not an hour's peace, 

 and possibly this is the chief cause of the demoralization, laziness and 



