76 Prince Maximilian's - — 



flesh I the young, on the contrary, are very palatable, and 

 therefore a welcome prey to the sportsman. We Europeans 

 were far inferior to our half naked Indian hunters in over- 

 coming the local obstructions of the grounds ; and three of 

 the slaves of the fazenda, whom, at their own request, we 

 furnished with amunition, brought in every evening a great 

 many animals which were then divided. Among these there 

 were many herons, ibises, ducks, (Anasmoschata and viduata)^ 

 the Ipecutiri, of (Azara,) or green-shouldered duck, the king^ 

 heron ( Gorqa real), a hitherto not fully described, but beautiful 

 iBpecies, with a yellowish white body and a pretty blue bill,* 

 and the large and small Egrette with their dazzling white 

 feathers. 



The Itabapuana furnished us likewise with various curi- 

 osities. Messrs. Freyreiss and Sellow, on a walk up the river, 

 were gratified with a view of a great company of otters 

 (Lutra brasiliensisj Lontras, which, without the slightest shew 

 of fear, played snorting and blowing about in the water. The 

 Otter, of Brazils is chiefly distinguished from our European 

 Otter by a somewhat flat compressed tail, which Azara also 

 remarks, a character which is not however generally to be re- 

 cognized in the stuffed specimens, and hence has been over- 

 looked in works on natural history. Their skin is tender and 

 handsome, and in the chief rivers, as in Rio S, FranciscOy 

 where they are called Auranha (Aurannia), they attain an im- 

 mense size. We accidentally obtained one of these otters, 

 which was floating dead on the water, though without any 

 visible cause for its death, and still fresh enough to be added to 

 our collection, and it measured from five to six feet in length. 



The woods resounded with the drumming call of the 

 Bear-ape (Mycetes ursinus), and with the gurgling voice of the 

 Saüssus (Callithrix personatus, Geoffroy) which are here parti- 

 cularly numerous. Our huntsmen sometimes killed four or 

 live of these handsome apes in a short time, by shooting swiftly 

 in upon them whenever they saw a company of them together ; 

 and, while re-loading, some of the party endeavoured to keep 

 the poor creatures in view as they fled over the boughs. The 

 Sauassu has not yet been described in any work of natural 

 history. It is prettily designed ; the head and the fore-hands 

 are black ; the body is of a fallow white — grey brown ; the 

 long swaggy tail, of a yellow reddish cast. Many of these 

 apes carried their young on their backs, and we found that 

 they were easily reared and became very tame. Among the 

 birds, we discovered an entirely new species of the wood- 



f Jirdea trtl^ata Latham, or Heron blanc a calotte mir Buffon — SoninL 



