368 



A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



was one species among them which attracted my attention 

 by its numbers, and also because it builds the most ex- 

 traordinary nest, considering the size of the bird itself, 

 that I have ever seen. It is known among th^ country 

 people by two names, as the Pedreiro or the Forneiro ; 

 both names referring, as will be seen, to the nature of 

 its habitation. This singular nest is built of clay, and 

 is as hard as stone (^pedrd)^ while it has the form of the 

 round mandioca oven (^forno) in which the country people 

 prepare their farinha, or flour, made from the mandioca 

 root. It is about a foot in diameter, and stands edgewise 

 upon a branch, or in the crotch of a tree. Among the 

 smaller birds I noticed bright Tanagers, and also a species 

 resembling the Canary. Besides these, there were the 

 wagtails ; the black and white widow-finches ; the hang- 

 nests, or Japi, as they are called here, with their pen- 

 dent, bag-like dwellings, and the familiar " Bem ti vi." 

 Humming-birds, which we are always apt to associate with 

 tropical vegetation, were very scarce. I saw but a few 

 specimens. Thrushes and doves were more frequent, and 

 I noticed also three or four kinds of woodpeckers, beside 

 parrots and paroquets ; of these latter there were countless 

 numbers along our canoe path, flying overhead in dense 

 crowds, and at times drowning every other sound in their 

 high, noisy chatter. 



" Some of these birds made a deep impression upon me. 

 Indeed, in all regions, however far away from his own home, 

 in the midst of a fauna and flora entirely new to him, the 

 traveller is startled occasionally by the song of a bird or the 

 sight of a flower so familiar that it transports him at once 

 to woods where every tree is like a friend to him. It seems 

 as if something akin to what in our own mental experience 



