Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/426



396 â€¢ TO THE TEBICUARY RIVER.

the Brazil, and the pretty little oustiti now so well known at home. Miss Popkin, of Monte Video, had charged me to bring back for her one of these dwarfs, but they are confined, I was assured, to the upper country.

The birds, like the other fauna, are those familiar to the Brazilian traveller. Of that foul cheiropter, the vampire, here named Mbopi (vespertilio spectrum), thirteen species have been described by Azara. The iiandu ostrich (rhea Americana) does not inhabit the swamps. The red Ibis is common, but men complain that its flesh smells of ginger. That ciconian giant with the black head, here known as yabiru, and in the Brazil, jabiru, (Mycteria Americana, or Ciconia pillus), is often seen standing sentinel-like at the mouths of influents where fish travel. Under the name perdiz (partridge), are confounded many species such as nothura, tinamus, crypturus, eudomia, and rhyncotus. They are mostly of two kinds, the large and small; the former rises two or three times, and is then caught by dogs and mounted men; whilst the latter, objecting to fly, is noosed as in Sind. I saw but one specimen of the penelope, which Mr. Mansfield (page 311) calls a pheasant ; the natives have it as pavo del monte, bush peacock, and yacu-hun, the black jacii. It wore a dull grey coat, unfamiliar to me in the Brazil, but the genus was not to be mistaken. Lieutenant-Commander Bushe often brought back in the evening a varied bag of eighteen brace, no small assistance where eggs command sixpence each, fowls $2.50 (ten shillings), and sheep $4 to $5, when they would barely fetch $1 at Buenos Aires.

Amongst the birds were two of great interest. One was the ipeg-guazu, alias pato real, a truly royal duck. It is evidently the parent stock of the domesticated Moscovy {i.e. musque) or Manilla duck (anas moschata), and it is readily known by its size, and by the white markings of the