1848.] 



MEXIANA. 



61 



so fearfully adapted to destroy whatever may come within their 

 reach, that it is much better to be a little cautious, than to run 

 any risk : I therefore put half-a-dozen bullets in my game-bag, 

 in case of an encounter. 



Some of the horses and cattle were miserable-looking objects, 

 from wounds inflicted by the bats, which cause them to lose 

 much blood, and sometimes, by successive attacks, kill them. 

 Senhor Leonardo informed us that they particularly abounded 

 in some parts of the island, and that he often has bat-hunts, 

 when several thousands are killed. It is a large species, of 

 coffee-brown colour, probably the Phyllostoma hastatmn. 



The morning after my arrival I took my gun, and walked 

 out to see what sport the island afforded. First going to a 

 tree near the house, which Senhor Leonardo pointed out to 

 me, I found numerous humming-birds fluttering about the 

 leaves (which were still wet with dew), and seeming to wash 

 and cool themselves with the moisture : they were of a blue 

 and green colour, with a long forked tail {Campy lopterus hirun- 

 dinaceus). Walking on in the campo, I found abundance of 

 Bemtevi fly-catchers, cuckoos, and tanagers, and also shot a 

 buzzard and a black eagle different from any I had seen 

 at Para. Insects were very scarce, owing to the dryness of 

 the season and the absence of forest ; so I soon gave up 

 collecting them, and attended entirely to birds, which were 

 rather plentiful, though not very rare or handsome. In ten 

 days I obtained seventy specimens, among which were fourteen 

 hawks and eagles, several herons, egrets, paroquets, wood- 

 peckers, and one of the large yellow-billed toucans {Rha??i' 

 phastos Toco), which are not found at Para- 

 Having made several excursions for some miles into the 

 interior of the island and along the coast, I obtained a 

 tolerable idea of its geography. It is everywhere a perfect flat, 

 the greatest elevations being a very few feet. Along the shore 

 in most places, and extending along the banks of the creeks 

 inland, is a belt of forest, varying in width from a hundred 

 yards to half a mile, containing a few palms and lofty trees, 

 and abundance of bamboos and climbers, rendering it almost 

 impassable. The whole of the interior is campo, or open 

 plain, covered with a coarse herbage, and in places sprinkled 

 with round-headed palms, and with low branching trees bearing 

 a profusion of yellow flowers. Scattered about, at intervals of 



