372 
EXCURSIO^TS BEYOND EGA. 
Chap. YL 
close, warm, and reeking ; and the hum and chirp of 
insects and birds cause a continual din. The small 
patch of weedy ground around the village swarms with 
plovers, sandpipers, striped herons, and scissor-tailed fly- 
catchers ; and alligators are always seen floating lazily 
on the surface of the river in front of the houses. 
On landing, I presented myself to Senhor Paulo Bitan- 
court, a good-natured half-caste, director of Indians 
of the neighbouring river Issa, who quickly ordered 
a small house to be cleared for me. This exhilarating 
abode contained only one room, the walls of which 
were disfigured by large and ugly patches of mud, the 
work of white ants. The floor was the bare earth, dirty 
and damp ; the wretched chamber was darkened by 
a sheet of calico being stretched over the windows, 
a plan adopted here to keep out the Pium-flies, which 
float about in all shady places like thin clouds of smoke, 
rendering all repose impossible in the daytime wher- 
ever they can effect an entrance. My baggage was soon 
landed, and before the steamer departed I had taken 
gun, insect-net, and game-bag, to make a preliminary 
exploration of my new locality. 
I remained here nineteen days, and, considering the 
shortness of the time, made a very good collection of 
monkeys, birds, and insects. A considerable number of 
the species (especially of insects) were different from 
those of the four other stations, which I examined on 
the south side of the Solimoens, and as many of these 
were representative forms " of others found on the 
opposite banks of the broad river, I concluded that 
* Species or races whicli take the place of other allied species or races. 
