26 
SANTAEEM. 
Chap. I. 
into a steady drizzle, which continues often for the 
greater part of the succeeding day. After a week or two 
of showery weather the aspect of the country is com- 
pletely changed. The parched ground in the neigh- 
bourhood of Santarem breaks out, so to speak, in a rash 
of greenery ; the dusty, languishing trees gain, without 
having shed their old leaves, a new clothing of tender 
green foliage ; a wonderful variety of quick-growing 
leguminous plants springs up, and leafy creepers over- 
run the ground, the bushes, and the trunks of trees. 
One is reminded of the sudden advent of spring after a 
few warm showers in northern climates ; I was the more 
struck by it as nothing similar is witnessed in the 
virgin forests amongst which I had passed the four 
years previous to my stay in this part. The grass on 
the campos is renewed, and many of the campo trees, 
especially the myrtles, which grow abundantly in one 
portion of the district, begin to flower, attracting by the 
fragrance of their blossoms a great number and variety 
of insects, more particularly Coleoptera. Many kinds of 
birds ; parrots, toucans, and barbets, which live habitually 
in the forest, then visit the open places. A few weeks of 
comparatively dry weather generally intervene in March, 
after a month or two of rain. The heaviest rains fall 
in April, May, and June ; they come in a succession of 
showers, with sunny gleamy weather in the intervals. 
J une and July are the months when the leafy luxuriance 
of the campos, and the activity of life, are at their highest. 
Most birds have then completed their moulting, which 
extends over the period from February to May. The 
flowering shrubs are then mostly in bloom, and number- 
