5736 Noles on an Excursion on the Upper Amazons. 



occurring at Fonte Boa. The Erotylida? of this country, like the He- 

 liconiidae, 1 think are an interesting study, rich in suggestive material 

 for theory. 



On the 25th January I embarked on the steamer for Ega, arriving 

 there on the following day. The latter part of my stay at Fonte Boa 

 was anything but agreeable or profitable. The excessive rains had 

 succeeded in converting the whole place into a glutinous mud-swamp. 

 The house in which I lived, the only one procurable, was very damp ; 

 the moisture oozed through the mud floor, and I became afraid of my 

 collections suffering from the damp ; for besides the choice collection 

 of insects, increased by 895 specimens at Fonte Boa (about 100 new 

 species), I had acquired a large collection of monkeys and birds. My 

 last excursions to the forest were made through mud half-way to the 

 knees. The mosquitos were incessant day and night ; the plague of 

 insect pests I had not felt so much whilst I was constantly amused 

 and occupied, but in bad weather, when little or nothing can be done, 

 they become intolerable : no one can imagine the state of feverish 

 irritation to which the unceasing attacks of mosquitos reduce a ner- 

 vous person. There is no place free from them; the rooms are 

 always filled with a humming swarm, especially towards the ground, 

 where they penetrate any thickness of trowsers. In the forest it was 

 infinitely worse ; I noticed the species were different also, the forest 

 species being much larger and having transparent wings : it is a little 

 cloud one carries about one's person every step on a ramble in the 

 forest, and their hum is so loud as to prevent one hearing well the 

 notes of birds, &c. In the village the species has opaque speckled 

 wings. The inhabitants ought to be thankful the great fellows never 

 come out of the forest. At Tunantins there were very few mosquitos; 

 the pest was Pium, which attacks only the bared parts of the body, 

 and in the day time. It is a small muscide, fixing itself on the skin, 

 and sucking the blood through its rather broad proboscis, so as 

 to leave, after it is satiated, a little red pustule. They come silently, 

 and cause a very disagreeable irritation ; at Tunantins they filled the 

 house like a thin cloud of smoke, and there were no means of pro- 

 tecting oneself from their attacks. The mosquito-net is of course an 

 effectual protection at night, but in the clay time it is too confining to 

 use. 



Upon the whole I am pretty well satisfied with my excursion. The 

 inhabitants of the villages, although almost as savage as the wild In- 

 dians of the retired districts, and much more demoralised, are not 

 offensive to strangers. With a little tact, I find it always easy to get 



