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APPENDIX— ZOOLOGY. 



winters the tempests of rain that assail them; but the claws of the ant-bear crumble them to dust in 

 a moment, when their inhabitants are as quickly devoured. 



There are divers species of the Bee, but none of them can be compared with the European bee in 

 the utility and excellence of its honey. 



That called Urucu is the most numerous, and of a gray colour. Its hive is of wood, and the 

 door is an orifice by which one can pass commodiously at a time, and where there is always one upon 

 the watch, with its head out, in order to impede the entrance of small insects. This sentinel is sub- 

 ject to the inconvenience of drawing back upon the entrance or going out of any one of the common- 

 wealth. The mumbuca is of a blackish colour. The mandassaia is black and short. These three 

 kinds are of the size of the European bee. The tuhim is smaller. The theuha is also small, and of 

 a yellow cast. The cupimeira, so denominated because it occupies the houses deserted by the Cupim 

 ant, makes good honey. The tatahira and the saranho are the only species that are mordacious. The 

 getahi is of the size of a mosquito, and manufactures a honey of a very liquid and delicious nature. 

 The caruara is a little larger than the preceding. The pregiugoza is of the size of the getahi, and 

 produces an insipid honey. That named mosquitinho is very small and black, and lives on the ground. 

 None of these species form the honey-comb like those of Europe; the combs are round, and the cells 

 unequal, in the form of a bubble, without regularity, and the wax is more or less glutinous, and never 

 has the whiteness of that of the old world. All the bee-hives, of whatever species of bees they are, 

 have few inhabitants, comparatively speaking. 



There are also various casts of Wasps, or Morimbondos, as they are called in the country. The 

 inxuy is delicate, and makes its habitation generally of a round form, plain, and of an ash colour, 

 attached to a branch, or fastened to some plant ; its combs are deep, and introduced one into the 

 other, the orifices or cells are full of a yellow savoury honey, which ultimately becomes like refined 

 sugar. The inxu is large, fabricates its combs according to the method of the preceding, and fills 

 them with most excellent honey. 



If the Brazil cannot boast of so great a variety of quadrupeds as some countries, perhaps no other 

 region of the world equals it in the innumerable species of birds which it possesses, more wonderful 

 still in the beauty of their plumage and variety of their song. 



Amongst them are those which follow, namely: — 



The Alma de Gato {Soul of a Cat) is of the size of a pigeon, the lower part ash-coloured, 

 and the upper of a gold colour, with a long tail, short and curved beak. It has no song. 



There are various kinds of Andorinhas, or Swallows, distinguished alone by the size or the 

 colour, being more or less black. 



The Anum is of the size of a blackbird, the whole of a brilliant and jet black, the tail long and 

 rounded, with only eight feathers. The bill curved, thick at the root, and the upper part pointed. 

 Its song is a kind of sad lamentation ; and its flight is short. They always proceed in flocks not very 

 numerous, and never alight upon high trees. It is said that these flocks all lay their eggs in one com- 

 mon nest. It is, however, certain, that if the nest of these birds is found witii a great number of 

 eggs, there are numerous compartments, and the various little nests are separated by portions of dried 

 grass. There are other casts of the Anum, of the size of the preceding one, but of an ash-colour, with 

 a slender beak, a little curved, and a tuft or plume of feathers, which it elevates and lowers at plea- 

 sure. 



The Araponga, or Guiraponga, is of the size of a small pigeon, white as snow, with a beak wide 

 at the root, a portion unfeathered, and of a green colour around the eyes. This bird perches upon the 



