up the Rio Negro. 



143 



mandioca root. It is about a foot in diameter, and 

 stands edgewise upon a branch, or in the crotch of 

 a tree. Among the smaller birds I noticed bright 

 tanagers, and also a species resembling the canary. 

 Besides these, there were the wagtails ; the black 

 and white willow-finches ; the hang-nests, or Japi, 

 as they are called here, with their pendent, bag-like 

 dwellings, and the familiar Bem-ti-vi.'' Humming- 

 birds, which we are always apt to associate with 

 tropical vegetation, were very scarce. I saw but a 

 few specimens. Thrushes and doves were more 

 frequent, and I noticed also three or four kinds of 

 wood-peckers, besides parrots and paroquets ; of 

 these latter there were countless numbers along our 

 canoe path, flying overhead in dense crowds, and at 

 times drowning every other sound in their high, 

 noisy clatter. 



Birds of prey, also were not wanting. Among 

 them was one about the size of our kite, and called 

 the red-hawk, which was so tame that, even when 

 our canoe passed immediately under the low branch 

 on which he was sitting, he did not fly away. But, 

 of all the groups of birds, the most striking as com- 

 pared with corresponding groups in the temperate 

 zone, and the one which reminded me the most dis- 

 tinctly of the fact that every region has its peculiar 

 animal world, was that of the gallinaceous birds. 

 The most frequent is the Cigana, to be seen in 

 groups of fifteen or twenty, perched upon trees 

 overhanging the water, and feeding upon berries. 

 At night they roost in pairs, but in the daytime are 

 always in larger companies. In their appearance 



