TO THE RIVER ESPIRITO SANTO. 



147 



We quitted this place after a stay of some days. At a little dis- 

 tance from the town we crossed the river, near the place where it falls 

 into the sea. In the marshes here, we frequently met with the jatro- 

 pha urens, which was far more painful to the naked feet of our hunters 

 than the most stinging nettles, as the little bristles of that plant pierce 

 through the clothes. In the marshy hollows, and on the banks of the 

 rivers along the whole coast, the beautiful blood-red tije ( tanagra 

 Brasilica, Linn.) is very common ; but in the mountains and great 

 forests of the interior it is much more rare, ^t the mouth of the 

 Itapemirim we found large flocks of a kind of gulls, as well as sea- 

 swallows in great numbers. Plovers and sand-pipers animated the 

 coast, where we frequently found in the sand, the little goat-sucker, 

 and in the woods a larger species of that bird. According to Marc- 

 graf, the Brazilians in the neighbourhood of Pernambuco call these 

 birds ihiyau ; but in the part of the coast which I visited they are 

 denominated hacurau. 



The heat being very intense, we suffered much from thirst, which 

 our young Puri taught us an infallible method of allaying. This was 

 to break off the middle stiff leaves of the bromelias, in the corners of 

 which very good water from the rain and dew collects ; and this nectar 

 is caught by applying the plant quickly to the mouth. 



On the projecting points of the coast, we this day found stony 

 hills, upon which grew a great number of slender wdld cocoa-palms, 

 the fine leaves of which proudly waved in the fresh sea-breeze. 

 The oyster-eater was every where common, as well as plovers and 

 sand-pipers. In a beautiful ancient forest we were highly amused 

 with the loud notes of various birds, among which, as the evening 

 approached, an owl ( curujc) was also heard ; parrots screamed aloud, 

 and the sweet call of the y«o ( tinamus) resounded far off in this mul- 

 titudmous concert, through the solitary wilderness. We took up our 

 night's lodging at t\\e fazenda de Aga, where mandiocca, cotton, and 



