1848.] 
BLUE MACAWS. 
75 
preaching mail-train, and the hammering of the boiler- 
makers at the iron- works. Then we often had the 
“ guarhibas,’’ or howling monkeys, with their terrific 
noises, the shrill grating whistle of the cicadas and 
locusts, and the peculiar notes of the suacuras and other 
aquatic birds ; add to these the loud unpleasant hum 
of the mosquito in your immediate vicinity, and you 
have a pretty good idea of our nightly concert on the 
Tocantins. 
On the morning of the 19th, at Panaja, where we had 
passed the night, I took my gun and went into 'the 
forest, but found nothing. I saw however an immense 
silk-cotton-tree, one of the buttresses of which ran out 
twenty feet from the trunk. On the beach was a pretty 
yellow (Enotliera, which is common all along this part 
of the river, as well as a small white passion-flower. Mr. 
Leavens here bought some rubber, and we then rowed 
or sailed on for the rest of the day. In the afternoon I 
took the montaria, with Isidora, to try and shoot some 
of the pretty yellow orioles. I killed one, but it stuck 
in a thick prickly tree, and we were obliged to come 
away without it. We passed Patos in the afternoon; 
near it was a tree covered with a mass of bright yellow 
blossoms, more brilliant than laburnum, and a really 
gorgeous sight. 
The next day we left the land of the blue macaw 
without a single specimen. Prom this place to the Palls 
we had seen them every day, morning and evening, flying 
high over the river. At almost every house feathers were 
on the ground, showing that this splendid bird is often 
shot for food. Alexander once had a chance at them, 
