284 STAY oisr the rio grande de belmonte, 



chus of Linneus, which is found already rather further to the North in 

 the country about Bahia. The splendid araras, and other beautiful 

 birds of the same family, adorn these dark woods clothed with every 

 variety of foliage. A flock of twenty or more, such as we saw here, 

 illumined by the bright beams of the sun, perched on a tree of the 

 most brilliant green, is indeed a magnificent sight, which cannot be 

 conceived by those M^ho have not witnessed it. They climb with 

 great dexterity about the luxuriant parasite plants ( cipos J, and 

 proudly turn their bodies, with their long tails, on all sides to the 

 beams of the sun. They at this time were very frequently about the 

 lower and middle parts of a prickly climbing plant ( smilax ? ) here 

 called spi?iha, of the fruit of which, now ripening, they are very 

 fond, as was proved by its white kernels, which we frequently found 

 in the crops of those we killed. It is therefore easy to shoot them at 

 this season ; whereas, at other times, they seek their food in the sum- 

 mits of the loftiest trees of the forest. 



Charmed with the success of our first chace of the araras, we re- 

 embarked, and passed the Coroa da Palha, where a small stream, 

 the Riacho da Palha, falls into the river ; and arrived, towards 

 evening, at the Coroa de Timicui, where some old deserted fisher- 

 men^s huts afforded us shelter for the night. It was here that I was 

 to find the skull of the beautiful large ounce (yaguarSteJ, the skin 

 of which I had bought at Ipibura, and which had been killed in this part 

 of the forest about a w^eek before. A couple of hunters traversing the 

 forest with some dogs in search of deer and other game, accidentally 

 met with the animal not far from the river, and near to a small stream, 

 and drove it, as usually happens, upon the trunk of a tree which lay 

 obliquely, where it was mortally wounded by a ball. It had seized 

 one of the dogs with its paw, when a second ball in the neck laid it 

 dead. I found the skull on the sand-bank near our huts, but un- 

 fortunately it was already much damaged. The eye-teeth had been 



