1848.] 
ALLIGATORS. 
101 
enormous mis-shapen heads, and fearful rows of long 
sharp teeth. When a number were out on the land, dead 
or dying, they were cut open, and the fat which accu- 
mulates in considerable quantities about the intestines 
was taken out, and made up into packets in the skins 
of the smaller ones, taken off for the purpose. There is 
another smaller kind, here called Jacare-tinga, which is 
the one eaten, the flesh being more delicate than in the 
larger species. After killing twelve or fifteen, the over- 
seer and his party went off to another lake at a short 
distance, where the alligators were more plentiful, and 
by night had killed near fifty. The next day they killed 
twenty or thirty more, and got out the fat from the 
others. 
I amused myself very well with my gun, creeping 
among the long grass, to get a shot at the shy aquatic 
birds, and sometimes wandering about the campo, where 
a woodpecker or a macaw rewarded my perseverance. I 
was much pleased when I first brought down a splendid 
blue and yellow macaw, but it gave me some hours of 
hard work to skin and prepare it, for the head is so 
fleshy and muscular, that it is no trifling matter to clean 
it thoroughly. The great tuyuyu {Mycteria Americana) 
was often, seen stalking about; but, with every precau- 
tion, I could not get within gun-shot of it. The large 
and small white herons were abundant, as well as black 
and grey ibises, boat-bills, blue storks, and ducks of 
several species ; there were also many black and yellow 
orioles, and a glossy starling, — of all of which I procured 
specimens. 
I had an opportunity of seeing the manner of curing 
