Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/186

 156 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [December,

some days we had not a bird; others, plenty of game, and one or two gallos. What with monkeys, guans, and mutuns, we had pretty good fare in the meat way. One day I went out alone, and by patiently watching under a fruit-tree, in a drenching shower, was rewarded by obtaining another beautiful gallo. Two were brought in alive : one of them I killed and skinned at once, knowing the great risk of attempting to keep them alive ; the other was kept by the Indian who caught it, but a few weeks afterwards it died. They are caught by snares at certain places, where the males assemble to play. These places are on rocks, or roots of trees, and are worn quite smooth and clean. Two or three males meet and perform a kind of dance, walking and jigging up and down. The females and young are never seen at these places, so that you are sure of catching only full-grown fine-plumaged males. I am not aware of any other bird that has this singular habit. On the last day of our stay, we were rather short of provisions. The Indians supped well off a young alligator they had caught in a brook near ; but the musky odour was so strong that I could not stomach it, and, after getting down a bit of the tail, finished my supper with mingau.

The next day we returned home to the little village. With twelve hunters, nine days in the forest, I had obtained twelve gallos, two of which I had shot myself; I had, besides, two fine trogons, several little blue-capped manakins, and some curious barbets, and ant-thrushes.

At the village I spent nearly a fortnight more, getting together a good many small birds, but nothing very rare. I shot a specimen of the curious bald-headed brown crow (Gymnocephahts calvus), which, though common in Cayenne, is very rare in the Rio Negro district ; nobody, in fact, but the Indians, had ever seen the bird, and they regarded it as my greatest curiosity. I also skinned a black agouti, and made drawings of many curious fish.

The Padre having come to Gufa, most of the Indians returned with me to attend the festa, and get their children baptized. When we arrived, however, we found that he had left for the villages higher up, and was to call on his return. I now wished to set off as soon as possible for the Upper Rio Negro, in Venezuela ; but of course no Indian could be got to go with me till the Padre returned, and I was obliged to