92 



THE TOCANTINS 



at every step I took, from the low bushes which bordered 

 the road. 1 first heard here the notes of a trogon ; it 

 was seated alone on a branch, at no great elevation ; a 

 beautiful bird, with glossy-green back and rose-coloured 

 breast (probably Trogon melanurus). At intervals it 

 uttered, in a complaining tone, a sound resembling the 

 words * qua, qua It is a dull inactive bird, and not 

 very ready to take flight when approached. In this 

 respect, however, the trogons are not equal to the jaca- 

 mars, whose stupidity in remaining at their posts, seated 

 on low branches in the gloomiest shades of the forest, is 

 somewhat remarkable in a country where all other birds 

 are exceedingly wary. One species of jacamar was not 

 uncommon here (Galbula viridis) ; I sometimes saw two 

 or three together seated on a slender branch silent and 

 motionless with the exception of a slight movement of 

 the head ; when an insect flew past within a short dis- 

 tance, one of the birds would dart off, seize it, and return 

 again to its sitting place. The trogons are found in the 

 tropics of both hemispheres ; the jacamars, which are 

 clothed in plumage of the most beautiful golden-bronze 

 and steel colours, are peculiar to tropical America. 



September iSth. We stayed only twenty-four hours at 

 Juquerapua, and then resumed our downward journey. 

 I was sorry to be obliged to leave this beautiful, though 

 almost uninhabited, country so soon, our journey through 

 it having been a mere tourist's gallop. Its vegetable 

 and animal productions, of which we had obtained merely 

 a glimpse, so to speak, were evidently different from 

 those of the alluvial plains of the Amazons. The time 

 we had spent, however, was too short for making a 

 sufficient collection of specimens and facts to illustrate 

 the amount and nature of the difference between the two 

 faunas : a subject of no small importance as being cal- 

 culated to throw light on the migrations of species across 

 the equator in South America. In the rocky pools near 

 Juquerapua we found many species of fresh- water shells, 

 and each of us, Mr. Leavens included, made a large col- 

 lection of them. One was a turret-shaped univalve, a 

 species of Melania, every specimen of which was worn 

 at the apex ; we tried in vain to get a perfect specimen. 

 In the crystal waters the fishes could be seen as plainly 

 as in an aquarium. One kind especially attracted our 

 attention, a species of Diodon, which was not more than 



