Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/63

 and a varied brown and white plumage. I shot two, but they were not in good condition; and as they are plentiful on all these streams, though not found at Para, it was with less regret that I threw them away. 'They keep in flocks on low trees and bushes on the banks of the river, feeding on the fruits and leaves of the large "Arum" before mentioned. 'They never descend to the ground, and have a slow and unsteady flight.

In the Campos, about a mile through the forest, I found waxbills, pigeons, toucans, and white-winged and blue chatterers. In the forest we found some fine new "Heliconias" and "Erycinidæ", and I took two "Cicadas" sitting on the trunk of a tree: when caught they make a noise almost deafening; they generally rest high up on the trees, and though daily and hourly heard, are seldom seen or captured. As I was returning to the house, I met a little Indian boy, and at the same time a large iguana at least three feet long, with crested back and hanging dewlap, looking very fierce, ran across the path. The boy immediately rushed after it, and seizing the tail with both hands, dashed the creature's head against a tree, killing it on the spot, and then carried it home, where it no doubt made a very savoury supper.

We here had an opportunity of seeing something of the arrangements and customs of a Brazilian country-house. 'The whole edifice in this case was raised four or five feet on piles, to keep it above water at the high spring tides. Running out to low-water mark was a substantial wooden pier, terminated by a flight of steps. 'This leads from a verandah, opening out of which is a room where guests are received and business transacted, and close by is the sugar-mill and distillery. Quite detached is the house where the mistress, children, and servants reside, the approach to it being through the verandah, and along a raised causeway forty or fifty feet in length. We took our meals in the verandah with Senhor Gomez, never once being honoured by the presence of the lady or her grown-up daughters. At six we had coffee; at nine, breakfast, consisting of beef and dried fish, with farinha, which supplies the place of bread; and, to finish, coffee and farinha cakes, and the rather unusual luxury of butter. We dined at three, and had rice or shrimp soup, a variety of meat, game or fresh fish, terminating with fruit, principally pine-apples and oranges,