112 
VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. 
Chap. II. 
It settled on our backs by twos and threes at a time, 
and pricked ns through our thick cotton shirts, making 
us start and cry out with the sudden pain. I secured 
a dozen or two as specimens. As an instance of the 
extremely confined ranges of certain species it may be 
mentioned that I did not find this insect in any other 
part of the country except along half a mile or so of 
this gloomy forest road. 
We were amused at the excessive and almost absurd 
tameness of a fine Mutum or Curassow turkey that ran 
about the house. It was a large glossy-black species 
(the Mitu tuberosa) having an orange-coloured beak 
surmounted by a bean-shaped excrescence of the same 
hue. It seemed to consider itself as one of the family : 
attended at all the meals, passing from one person to 
another round the mat to be fed, and rubbing the 
sides of its head in a coaxing way against their cheeks 
or shoulders. At night it went to roost on a chest in 
a sleeping-room beside the hammock of one of the 
little girls, to whom it seemed particularly attached, 
following her wherever she went about the grounds. 
I found this kind of Curassow bird was very common 
in the forests of the Cupari ; but it is rare on the 
Upper Amazons, where an allied species which has a 
round instead of a bean-shaped waxen excrescence on 
.the beak (Ci'ax globicera) is the prevailing kind. 
These birds in their natural state never descend from 
the tops of the loftiest trees, where they live in small 
flocks and build their nests. The Mitu tuberosa lays 
two rough-shelled, white eggs ; it is fully as large a 
bird as the common turkey, but the flesh when cooked 
