TO THE RIVER ESPIRITO SANTO. 139 



black. The old male is very large and heavy, and his flesh rather 

 tough ; young ones, however, are good eating, and therefore very 

 welcome to the hunter. 



We Europeans often met with great difficulties in our hunting ex- 

 cursions in the marshy, woody country, upon the banks of the river ; 

 our half-naked Indian hunters, however, penetrated far more easily 

 into these wildernesses. Three negro slaves of the fazenda also 

 offered to hunt for us : we gave them fowling-pieces and ammunition, 

 and they .brought in every evening a number of animals, w^hich were 

 then divided. Among these were herons, ibisses, ducks ( moschata 

 and viduata J, the ipecutiri of Azara, or the green-shouldered duck, the 

 royal heron ( garca real j, a beautiful, hitherto imperfectlj^-described 

 species, with a yellowish white body and a fine blue bill*, the great 

 and the little egret, with their dazzling white plumage, and many 

 others. The Itabapuana likewise afforded us various rarities. In a 

 walk up the river, Messrs. Freyreiss and Sellow were amused by the 

 sight of a large company of otters ( Intra Brasiliensis), lojitras, 

 which sported in the water before them, without any signs of alarm. 

 The Brazilian otter differs from the otter of our European rivers, 

 chiefly in having its tail rather flattened, as Azara also observes ; a 

 characteristic generally not retained by stuffed specimens, and there- 

 fore overlooked in works on natural history. Its skin is very soft and 

 beautiful. In the principal rivers of the interior of Brazil, for in- 

 stance, the Rio St. Francisco, they attain a prodigious size : they are 

 called there not lontra. but ariranlia. We secured one of these large 

 otters in the following manner. Information was brought to us, that 

 a large dead animal, M-ith human hands, was lying in the water. We 

 went to the spot to examine what strange creature this might be, and 



* Ardea pileata, Latham; or, le heroti blanc d calotte noire. Bufl'on, Soiiniui, vol. 21. 

 p. 192. 



