22 
Muscovy i)ucKS. 
more than once daily and, in spite of their trilling size, the difficulty 
of dragging them over was doul)led by the fact that the spaces, through 
which the small amount of water puured, were at liiost only from 2 to 
4 feet wide. A\'hen we did manage to overcome such a rocky obstacle, 
the water banked up behind it did certainly I'fford us an opportunity 
for taking a rest: but for how long did this last? After three or four 
hundred strokes with the paddle, a fresh barrier was already there to 
block the Avay agaiu. 
57. In spite of our manifest sufferings and sorrows it was foilunate 
our stomachs did not have to starve; we were not only handsomely sup- 
plied with bread, but the river also offered our huntsmen and fishers 
a most abundant harvest. The rocky crossings teemed with beautiful 
and tasty muscovy ducks {A)ias moschata) . It is undoubtedly the wild 
progenitor of the muscovy-ducks so plentiful in our larger fowl-yards. 
It seems to have received its common designation from the mistaken idea 
that it A\ as imported from Russia. As Azara found it even in Paraguay, 
it would seem to be distributed all over iPouth America. I cannot rightly 
understand how it has aquired its specific name of moschata because 
there is no trace wliatever of a musk smell. Duriug the oppressive heat 
at midday and afternoon tlie birds generally pick a shady spot on the 
river sides or on the sandlianks: morning and evening they search for 
their food which consists of fish, snails, algae and other water-plants. 
The male is considerably larger than the feuuile. They build tlieir nests 
partly in hollow trees on the banks, partly, as people assured us, on the 
Afaiirifia flr.ruosa, esi)ecially in s\vain])s, where iiuiiiediatcly tlie young 
come out of the egg the old mother has to take them in her beak down 
to the water. "Wliether the last statement is a fact, well, I will leave it at 
tliat : I have never seen it myself. That the b'lrds sleep by night only 
uiM)n higli trees, and always fly to such big ones wlien scared during 
the day, I have regularly had opportunities >f learning from my own 
experience. Even those which, during the day, remain in tlie swamps, 
fly at sunset to the forest cases or river banks to sleep there on the lofty 
trees. Their flight is uncommonly swift and always accompanied, 
especially on rising, with a loud and hollow noise, something like that 
of our partridges wlien rising. In ]\Iay, as in September, we found young 
that were being carefully Avatched over by their mother. On tlie slightest 
danger tlie latter at once i uslies tlieni to the thickest scrul;. out of which 
she entices tliem Avith a s|)ecial call as soon as it is over. The jiairing 
season appears to give rise to the most sanguinary encounters amongst - 
the males : at least, we found at these times large areas strewn over with 
feathers. If the duck is not mortally wounded, and there is any thicket 
close by, it mostly escapes the huntsman, because it immediately slinks 
off in such a way that even the Indians do not always succeed in finding 
•f. Still more plentiful however than the ducks were the blue Macaws. 
On approaching the trees where they perched, they rose in pairs with a 
deafening screech and, making an awful row, circled around us. Tlie 
male and female in most cases sat chattering together all the Avhile in 
a peculiar knurring tone: when a deadly shot happened to knock one 
of them over, the other would fly around the tree and branch uttering a 
