140 JOURNEY FROM VILLA DE ST. SALVADOR, 



found an immensely large otter, between five and six feet long, which 

 was indeed dead, but still sufficiently fresh to be added to our collec- 

 tions. We could not discover what might have been the cause of the 

 animars death, as it appeared to have no external injury. 



Higher up the Itabapuana, jacares are also found. The woods 

 resounded with the cries, resembling the sound of a drum, of the 

 roaring ape ( mycetes ursinus ), and the loud hoarse voice of the 

 saiiassu ( caUithrix personatiis, Geofiroy), which were very common 

 in these parts. Our hunters sometimes shot four or five of these 

 handsome apes in a short time ; for when they discovered a company 

 of them, they fired quickly and loaded again, while one or more of 

 them endeavoured to keep the animals in view in their flight over the 

 branches. The saiiassu has not yet been delineated in any work on 

 natural history. It is prettily marked : the head and the four feet 

 are black ; the body of a pale brownish grey ; the long slender tail of 

 a reddish yellow. Several of these monkeys carried their young on 

 their backs, and we soon found that it was easy to bring them up 

 tame. Among the birds which we shot, there was a remarkably 

 beautiful species of woodpecker, which I call picus melanopterus. The 

 wdiole of the plumage is white, excepting the wings, back, and part 

 of the tail, which are black ; and the eye is encircled with naked 

 orange-coloured skin. 



At Campos we had engaged two hunters, who had gone forward 

 to the harra of the Itabapuana, with directions to try their luck there, 

 and to rejoin us at Muribecca. As the time which we had allowed 

 them had long expired, and they had our best fowling-pieces, we 

 were under no small apprehension that they might have run away with 

 them. We therefore manned a boat with our people, who proceeded 

 down the river to its mouth, surprised the hunters, who were off their 

 guard, took the fowling-pieces from them, and let them go about 

 their business. 



