l68 Through the Brazilian Wilderness. 
One thing I have omitted to mention about them that I 
have never noticed in any other bird is the possession of aii 
under eyelid, which closes horizontally instead of vertically, 
as in the outside eyelid. It draws this well over the eye, instead 
of closing it. whenever its head is being tickled or played with. 
<-M-^ 
Through the Brazihan Wilderness — Birds. 
By Theodore Roosevelt. 
[As being of great interest to our readers we have made extracts (with 
apologies and best thanks to the pubhshers) from this LIV^E book of the 
parts referring to the avifauna of this area. — Ed. B.N.] 
" During the two months before starting from Asuncion, 
in Paraquay, for our journey into the interior, I was kept so 
busy that I had scant time to think of natural history. But in a 
strange land a man who cares for wild birds and beasts always 
sees and hears something that is new to him and interests him. 
In the dense tropical wood near Rio Janeiro I heard, in late 
October — springtime near the southern tropic — the song of 
many birds that I could not identify. But the most beautiful 
music was a shy woodland thrush, sombre-coloured, which lived 
near the ground, but sang high among the branches. At a 
great distance we could hear the ringing, musical, bell-like note, 
long drawn and of piercing sweetness, which occurs at intervals 
in the song; at first I thought this was the song, but when it was 
possible to approach the singer, I found that these far-sounding 
notes were scattered through a continuous song of great 
melody. I never listened to one that impressed me more. In 
different places in Argentina I heard and saw the Argentine 
Mocking Bird, which is not very much unlike that of our own, 
and is also a delightful and remarkable singer. But I never 
heard the wonderful White-banded Mocking-bird, which is said 
by Hudson, who knew well the birds of both South America and 
Europe, to be the songbird of them all. 
" Most of the birds I thus noticed while hurriedly passing 
through the country were, of course, the conspicuous ones. 
The Spurred Lapwings, big, tame, boldy-marked plover, were 
