232 



THE LOWER AMAZONS 



wilderness, here fall over a ledge of rock about ten feet 

 high. It is not the cascade itself, but the noiseless solitude, 

 and the marvellous diversity and richness of trees, foliage, 

 and flowers, encircling the water basin, that form the 

 attraction of the place. Families make picnic excursions 

 to this spot ; and the gentlemen — it is said the ladies 

 also — spend the sultry hours of mid-day bathing in the 

 cold and bracing waters. This place is classic ground 

 to the Naturalist, from having been a favourite spot with 

 the celebrated travellers Spix and Martins, during their 

 stay at Barra in 1820. Von Martins was so much im- 

 pressed by its magical beauty that he commemorated the 

 visit by making a sketch of the scenery serve as back- 

 ground in one of the plates of his great work on the 

 palms. 



Birds and insects, however, were scarce amidst these 

 charming sylvan scenes. I often traversed the whole 

 distance from Barra to the waterfall, about two miles 

 by the forest road, without seeing or hearing a bird, 

 or meeting with so many as a score of Lepidopterous 

 and Coleopterous insects. In the thinner woods near 

 the borders of the forest many pretty little blue and 

 green creepers of the Dacnidae group, were daily seen 

 feeding on berries ; and a few very handsome birds 

 occurred in the forest. But the latter were so rare that 

 we could obtain them only by employing a native hunter ; 

 who used to spend a whole day, and go a great distance, 

 to obtain two or three specimens. In this way I obtained, 

 amongst others, specimens of the Trogon pavoninus (the 

 Suruqua grande of the natives), a most beautiful creature, 

 having soft golden green plumage, red breast, and an 

 orange-coloured beak ; also the Ampelis Pompadoura, 

 a rich glossy-purple chatterer with wings of a snowy- 

 white hue. The borders of the forest yielded me more 

 insects also than the shady central pathways. A few 

 species occurred which I had previously found at Obydos 

 and Serpa, but certain kinds were met with which are not 

 known in any other part of South America. The small- 

 leaved bushes and low trees on the skii ts of the forest and 

 along the more open pathways were sparingly tenanted by 

 a variety of curious phytophagous beetles. None of these 

 offered any remarkable feature, except perhaps the species 

 of Chlamys. These are small beetles of a cubical shape 

 and grotesque appearance, the upper surface of their 



