1850.] 
RETURN TO BARRA. 
173 
to Barra. On the last clay my hunter went out, he 
brought me a fine male bird alive. It had been wounded 
slightly on the head, just behind the eye, and had fallen 
to the ground stunned, for in a short time it became 
very active, and when he brought it me was as strong 
and fierce as if it was quite uninjured. I put it in a large 
wicker basket, but as it would take no food during two 
days, I fed it by thrusting pieces of banana down its 
throat ; this I continued for several days, with much 
difficulty, as its claws were very sharp and powerful. 
On our way to Barra I found by the river-side a small 
fruit which it ate readily : this fruit was about the size 
of a cherry, of an acid taste, and was swallowed whole. 
The bird arrived safely in the city, and lived a fortnight ; 
when one day it suddenly fell off* its perch and died. On 
skinning it, I found the shot had broken the skull and 
entered to the brain, though it seems surprising that it 
should have remained so long apparently in perfect 
health. I had had however an excellent opportunity of 
observing its habits, and its method of expanding and 
closing its beautiful crest and neck-plume. 
I had now a dull time of it in Barra. The wet 
season had regularly set in : a day hardly ever passed 
without rain, and on many days it was incessant. We 
seized every opportunity for a walk in the forest, but 
scarcely anything was to be found when we got there, 
and what we did get was with the greatest difficulty 
preserved; for the atmosphere was so saturated with 
moisture, that insects moulded, and the feathers and hair 
dropped from the skins of birds and animals, so as to 
render them quite unserviceable. Luckily however there 
