r to the New World, and distinguished by its enormous
bill, is a quarrelsome, imperious bird. It is clumsy in flight, but
nimble in leaping from limb to limb. It hops on the ground like a robin,
and makes a shrill yelping--_pia-po-o-co_. Ecuadorians call it the
_predicador_, or preacher, because it wags its head like a priest, and
seems to say, "God gave it you." The feathers of the breast are of most
brilliant yellow, orange, and rose colors, and the robes of the royal
dames of Europe in the sixteenth century were trimmed with them. The
cigana or "gypsy" (in Peru called "chansu") resembles a pheasant. The
flesh has a musky odor, and it is for this reason, perhaps, that they
exist in such numbers throughout the country. The Indians never eat
them. In no country as in the Amazonian Valley is there such a variety
of insects; nowhere do we find species of larger size or greater beauty.
It is the richest locality for butterflies; Bates found twelve hundred
species in Brazil alone, or three times as many as in all Europe. The
splendid metallic-blue, and the yellow and transparent-winged, are very
abundant on the Napo; some rise high in the air; others, living in
societies, look like fluttering clouds. Moths are comparatively rare.
The most conspicuous beetle on the river is a magnificent green species
(_Chrysophora chrysochlora_), always found arboreal, like the majority
of tropical coleopters; they look like emerald gems clinging to the
branches. There are two kinds of bees, the black and yellow, which the
Napos name respectively _cushillo mishke_ (monkey honey) and _sara
mishke_ (corn honey). It is singular these Indians have no term for
bees, but call them honey, and distinguish them by their color. The
black species is said to make the most honey, and the yellow the best.
The quadrupeds of the Oriente are few and far between in the dry season.
Not a sloth nor armadillo did we see. But when the rains descend the
wilderness is a menagerie of tigers and tapirs, pumas and bears, while a
host of reptiles, led by the gigantic boa, creep forth from their
hiding-places. The most ferocious carnivores are found in the mountains,
and the most venomous serpents haunt the lowlands. Darwin says that we
ought not to expect any closer similarity between the organic beings on
the opposite sides of the Andes than on the opposite shores of the
ocean. We will remark that we obtained a peccari, a number of birds not
accustomed to high flights,