40 



Prince Maximilian^.^ 



house of the owner, a capUam extends to a range of negro hut^, 

 laid out in a square, and forming a small village. 



Being obliged to wait here several days for some mules which 

 had stayed behind, we profited of this delay to examine the coun- 

 try. A hunter showed us here the skin of a monkey, called by 

 the inhabitants mono. We killed some of them afterwards, and 

 found them to be of the sj)ecies called ateles ; * it is the largest 

 kind in all the parts wherein we travelled, and their skin is used 

 by the hunters for covers over the locks of their guns. The fo- 

 rests of Campos Novos^ at some distance from Xhaitfazenda^ are filled 

 with them. Our hunters had killed several guaribas, or barbados ; 

 one old male ape was brought us yet alive. In the neighbouring 

 marshes, we found, suspended on reeds and grass blades, clusters 

 of fine rose-red eggs of the marsh-snail, described in Mawe^s Tra- 

 vels under the name of helix ampullacea. This snail is very com- 

 mon in all the dried-up marshes. We also found, in all the fo- 

 rests which we had passed, the large land-snail, shewn by Mawe 

 as a variety of the helix oralis. The colour of this creature is of 

 a pale orange, but that of the house is mostly of a pale brownish 

 yellow. Here we observed, on the branches of the shrubs, the 

 nests of a species of wasp, (pelopceus lunatus, Fabr.) made of clay, 

 and about the size and shape of a pear. By breaking it, we found 

 dispersed between the mass from five to six or seven larvae, or 

 complete wasps. If not the same, it is very nearly related to that 

 described by Azara. 



The copse in this region consists of a species of gardenia^ called 

 here cuirannay a species probably not yet described, making a good 

 wood for timber. Being at some distance from the sea, the woods 

 abound with monkies and game. The beautiful forest, ( mato vir- 

 gem^) which extends in an almost uninterrupted range from Cam- 

 pos Noi'os to the river S. Joao, a distance of four legoas, and 

 which we had now entered, was not undeserving of our notice. 

 We soon reached a picturesque marshy spot, surrounded by 

 young cocoa-palms and heliconia bushes, which form, as in con- 

 trast, the underwood to the large lofty forest trees. The green, 

 blue, and yellow suracua ( trogon viridis, Linn.) was very com- 

 mon here ; by imitating their call we shot several males and fe- 

 males. Here we saw, curiously entwined, the ^ipos, and a par- 

 ticularly beautiful banisterius, mostly with yellow flowers, and 

 remarkably shaped stems, also very grana webs of the co- 

 coa-palm, an undescribable ornament of the forest ; the hrome- 

 lia, beautifully flourishing in the upper branches, 'i'he white 



• Ateles hypoxanthus, with long limbs, and a strong long tail; the hair pale yellowish 

 grey, often a ycllowisli red at the root of the tail ; the face of a fleehy colour, strewed 

 with blackish dots and spots. Whole length, from the tip of the nose to the end of the 

 tail, 46 inches and 3-12ths. The thmnb of the fore-paws is only a short bturnp, and 

 this distinguishes these animals from Geoffrexft Arachnoides, which are without it. 



