156 



TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO, 



{December^ 



some days we had not a bird; others, plenty of game, and 

 one or two gallos. What with monkeys, guans, and mutuns, 

 we had pretty good fare in the meat way. One day I went 

 out alone, and by patiently watching under a fruit-tree, in a 

 drenching shower, was rewarded by obtaining another beautiful 

 gallo. Two were brought in alive : one of them I killed and 

 skinned at once, knowing the great risk of attempting to keep 

 them alive ; the other was kept by the Indian who caught it, 

 but a few weeks afterwards it died. They are caught by snares 

 at certain places, where the males assemble to play. These 

 places are on rocks, or roots of trees, and are worn quite 

 smooth and clean. Two or three males meet and perform a 

 kind of dance, walking and jigging up and down. The females 

 and young are never seen at these places, so that you are sure 

 of catching only full-grown fine-plumaged males. I am not 

 aware of any other bird that has this singular habit. On the 

 last day of our stay, we were rather short of provisions. The 

 Indians supped well off a young alligator they had caught in 

 a brook near ; but the musky odour was so strong that I could 

 not stomach it, and, after getting down a bit of the tail, finished 

 my supper with mingau. 



The next day we returned home to the little village. With 

 twelve hunters, nine days in the forest, I had obtained twelve 

 gallos, two of which I had shot myself; I had, besides, two 

 fine trogons, several little blue-capped manakins, and some 

 curious barbets, and ant-thrushes. 



At the village I spent nearly a fortnight more, getting 

 together a good many small birds, but nothing very rare. I 

 shot a specimen of the curious bald-headed brown crow 

 {Gymnocephalus calvus), which, though common in Cayenne, 

 is very rare in the Rio Negro district ; nobody, in fact, but the 

 Indians, had ever seen the bird, and they regarded it as my 

 greatest curiosity. I also skinned a black agouti, and made 

 drawings of many curious fish. 



The Padre having come to Guia, most of the Indians 

 returned with me to attend the festa, and get their children 

 baptized. When we arrived, however, we found that he had 

 left for the villages higher up, and was to call on his return. 

 I now wished to set off as soon as possible for the Upper Riof 

 Negro, in Venezuela ; but of course no Indian could be got 

 to go with me till the Padre returned, and I was obliged to 



