60 



JOURNEY FROM RIO DE JANEIRO 



I never saw the flower, though the plant itself is very common. The 

 odour exhaled by many of these creeping plants is strong, but ex- 

 tremely various : the cipo cravo smells very agreeably, something like 

 cloves ; another, on the contrary, which is mentioned by La Conda- 

 mine as growing on the banks of the Amazons, has the smell of 

 garlic. Many of them shoot downwards long branches, which take 

 root ; thus impeding the progress of the traveller, who must cut 

 them down before he can proceed. Such pendent branches, when 

 agitated by the wind, frequently inflict severe blows on the traveller in 

 these forests. In general, vegetation is so luxuriant in these climates, 

 that every old tree we saw presented a botanical garden of plants, 

 often difficult to come at, and certainly for the most part unknown. 



We shot many fine birds here : amongst others, the trogon vmcUs 

 of Linneus was very common ; his voice and oft-repeated whistle, 

 sinking from high to low, is every where heard. We soon learned to 

 imitate it, and could thus easily entice the bird, which settled on low 

 branches near us, where we could shoot it with ease. Woodpeckers, 

 of different beautiful species, were equally numerous. We often 

 killed great numbers of the little parrots with a wedge-shaped tail, 

 here called tiribas*. Towards evening I had the good fortune to 

 obtain the pavo, or red-necked magpie of Azara. This is a beautiful 

 black bird, of the size of a crow, the fore-part of the neck of a bril- 

 liant red colour. Mr. Sellow did not find many new plants ; but he 

 frequently met with the ahtrcemeria ligtii, bearing a red and white 

 striped flower. He also caught a snake, which, though very common 



* The parrot known in the greatest part of the east coast by the name of tiriba, appears 

 to be a hitherto undescribed species, which I named psittacns cruentatus. It is of the size 

 of a thrush, has a cuneiform long tail, and is 8 inches 11 lines in length : the plumage green : 

 crown and back of the head greyish brown ; the sides of the head and throat green ; between 

 the eye and the ear brownish red ; behind the ear, on the side of the neck, an orange -coloured 

 spot; fore-part of the neck sky-blue; on the belly and uiopygium, a blood-red spot. 



