I85I.1 



THE PAXIUBA PALM, 



199 



plain-coloured Acroea, that I had first met with at Jukeira, was 

 here also very abundant. 



In a hollow near a small stream that crossed the path I 

 found growing the singular palm called " Paxiuba barriguda " 

 (the big-bellied paxiuba). It is a fine, tall, rather slender tree, 

 with a head of very elegant curled leaves. At the base of the 

 stem is a conical mass of air-roots, five or six feet high, more 

 or less developed in all the species of this genus. But the 

 peculiar character from which it derives its name is, that the 

 stem at rather more than halfway up swells suddenly out to 

 double its former thickness or more, and after a short distance 

 again contracts, and continues cylindrical to the top. It is 

 only by seeing great numbers of these trees, all with this 

 character more or less palpable, that one can believe it is not 

 an accidental circumstance in the individual tree, instead of 

 being truly characteristic of the species. It is the Iriartea 

 ventricosa of Martius. 



I tried here to procure some hunters and fishermen, but 

 was not very successful. I had a few fish brought me, and 

 now and then a bird. A curious bird, called anambe, was 

 flying in flocks about the pupunha palms, and after much 

 trouble I succeeded in shooting one, and it proved, as I had 

 anticipated, quite different from the Gymnoderus nudicollts, 

 which is a species much resembling it in its flight, and common 

 in all parts of the Rio Negro. I went after them several times, 

 but could not succeed in shooting another; for though they 

 take but short flights, they remain at rest scarcely an instant. 

 About the houses here were several trumpeters, curassow-birds, 

 and those beautiful parrots, the anacas {Derotypus accipitrinus)^ 

 which all wander and fly about at perfect liberty, but being 

 bred from the nest, always return to be fed. The Uaupes 

 Indians take much delight, and are very successful, in breeding 

 birds and animals of all kinds. 



We stayed here a week, and I went daily into the forest 

 when the weather was not very wet, and generally obtained 

 something interesting. I frequently met parties of women and 

 boys, going to and returning from the rhossas. Sometimes 

 they would run into the thicket till I had passed ; at other 

 times they would merely stand on one side of the path, with a 

 kind of bashful fear at encountering a white man while in that 

 state of complete nudity, which they know is strange to us. 



