Chap. IY. 
RETURN TO CATUA. 
295 
We had to wait two hours for the return of our compa- 
nions ; during part of this time I was left quite alone^ 
Lino having started off into the jungle after a peccary 
(a kind of wild hog) which had come near to where we 
sat, but on seeing us had given a grunt and bounded off 
into the thickets. At length our friends hove in sight, 
loaded with game ; having shot twelve curassows and 
two cujubims (Penelope Pipile), a handsome black 
fowl with a white head, which is arboreal in its habits 
like the rest of this group of Gallinaceous birds in- 
habiting the South American forests. They had dis- 
covered a third pool containing plenty of turtles. Lino 
rejoined us at the same time, having missed the pec- 
cary, but in compensation shot a Quandu, or porcupine. 
The mulatto boy had caught alive in the pool a most 
charming little water-fowl, a species of grebe. It was 
somewhat smaller than a pigeon, and had a pointed 
beak ; its feet were furnished with many intricate folds 
or frills of skin instead of webs, and resembled very 
much those of the gecko lizards. The bird was kept 
as a pet in Jabuti's house at Ega for a long time after- 
wards, where it became accustomed to swim about in 
a common hand-basin full of water, and was a great 
favourite with everybody. 
We now retraced our steps towards the water-side, a 
weary walk of five or six miles, reaching our canoe by 
half-past five o'clock, or a little before sunset. It was 
considered by every one at Catua that we had had an 
unusually good day's sport. I never knew any small 
party to take so much game in one day in these 
forests, over which animals are everywhere so widely 
