scarce. We heard, however, occasionally, the long-drawn, wailing
note of the Inambu, a kind of partridge (Crypturus cincreus?);
and, also, in the hollows on the banks, of the rivulets, the
noisy
notes of another bird, which seemed to go in pairs, amongst the
tree-tops, calling to each other as they went. These notes
resounded through the wilderness. Another solitary bird had
a most sweet and melancholy song; it consisted simply of a
few notes, uttered in a plaintive key, commencing high, and
descending by harmonic intervals. It was probably a species
of warbler of the genus Trichas. All these notes of birds
are very striking and characteristic of the forest.

I afterwards saw reason to modify my opinion, founded on these
first impressions, with regard to the amount and variety of
animal life in this and other parts of the Amazonian forests.
There is, in fact, a great variety of mammals, birds, and
reptiles, but they are widely scattered, and all excessively shy
of man. The region is so extensive, and uniform in the forest
clothing of its surface, that it is only at long intervals that
animals are seen in abundance when some particular spot is found
which is more attractive than others. Brazil, moreover, is
poor throughout in terrestrial mammals, and the species are of
small size; they do not, therefore, form a conspicuous feature in
its forests. The huntsman would be disappointed who expected to
find here flocks of animals similar to the buffalo herds of North
America, or the swarms of antelopes and herds of ponderous
pachyderms of Southern Africa. The largest and most interesting
portion of the Brazilian mammal fauna is arboreal in its habits;
this feature of the animal denizens of these forests I have