3IO VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS 



ance beaming with good nature, came down to the port 

 as soon as we anchored. I was quite a stranger to him, 

 but he had heard of my coming and seemed to have made 

 preparations. I never met with a heartier welcome. 

 On entering the house, the wife, who had more of the 

 Indian tint and features than her husband, was equally 

 warm and frank in her greeting. Senhor Antonio had 

 spent his younger days at Para, and had acquired a pro- 

 found respect for Englishmen. I stayed here two days. 

 My host accompanied me in my excursions ; in fact, his 

 attentions, with those of his wife and the host of relatives 

 of all degrees who constituted his household, were quite 

 troublesome, as they left me not a moment's privacy 

 from morning till night. 



We had together several long and successful rambles 

 along a narrow pathway which extended several miles 

 into the forest. I here met with a new insect pest, one 

 which the natives may be thankful is not spread more 

 widely over the country : it was a large brown fly of the 

 Tabanidae family (genus Pangonia), with a proboscis half 

 an inch long and sharper than the finest needle. It 

 settled on our backs by twos and threes at a time, and 

 pricked us through our thick cotton shirts, making us 

 start and cry out with the sudden pain. I secured a 

 dozen or two as specimens. As an instance of the ex- 

 tremely confined ranges of certain species it may be 

 mentioned that I did not find this insect in any other 

 part of the country except along half a mile or so of this 

 gloomy forest road. 



We were amused at the excessive and almost absurd 

 tameness of a fine Mutum or Curassow turkey that ran 

 about the house. It was a large glossy-black species 

 (the Mitu tuberosa) having an orange-coloured beak sur- 

 mounted by a bean-shaped excrescence of the same hue. 

 It seemed to consider itself as one of the family : attended 

 at all the meals, passing from one person to another 

 round the mat to be fed, and rubbing the sides of its 

 head in a coaxing way against their cheeks or shoulders. 

 At night it went to roost on a chest in a sleeping-room 

 beside the hammock of one of the little girls, to whom 

 it seemed particularly attached, following her wherever 

 she went about the grounds. I found this kind of Curas- 

 sow bird was very common in the forests of the Cupari ; 

 but it is rare on the Upper Amazons, where an allied 



