VALLEY OF THE AMAZONS. 
189 
workings of nature ; for though the organic 
combinations are so distinct in different cli¬ 
mates and countries, they never wholly exclude 
each other. Every zoological and botanical 
province retains some link which binds it to 
all the rest, and makes it part of the general 
harmony. The Arctic lichen is found growing 
under the shadow of the palm on the rocks 
of the tropical serra, and the song of the 
thrush and the tap of the woodpecker mingle 
with the sharp discordant cries of the parrot 
and paroquet. 
Birds of prey, also, were not wanting. Among 
them was one called the Bed Hawk, about the 
size of our kite, so tame that, even when our 
canoe passed immediately under the low branch 
on which he was sitting, he did not fly away. 
But of all the groups of birds, the most strik¬ 
ing as compared with corresponding groups 
in the temperate zone, and the one which re¬ 
minded me the most distinctly of the fact that 
every region has its peculiar animal world, 
was that of the gallinaceous birds. The most 
frequent is the Cigana, to be seen in groups 
of fifteen or twenty, perched upon trees over¬ 
hanging the water, and feeding upon berries. 
