The NANDU, or American Ostrich, is found in great numbers in the pampas of South America. It is the largest bird in the world, with the single exception of its prototype of the African continent. It closely resembles the Ostrich, but its plumage is less exuberant and valuable, and it has one toe less, leaving but two on each foot.

The RAPACIOUS KIND is well represented in this region of country by the CONDOR VULTURE, (rare;) the BEARDEDVULTURE; the BRAZILIAN VULTURE; and the KING VULTURE; the BALD EAGLE; CARACARA EAGLE; VULTURINE CARACARA EAGLE; TURKEY BUZZARD; COMMON Or WANDERING FALCON; KITE, Falco Mississippiensis of Wilson; WHITE-TAILED HAWK, F. dispar. Temm.; SWALLOW-TAILED HAWK, F. furcatus, Audubon; HEN-HARRIER, F. uliginosus, Wilson; and the BURROWING, GREAT-HORNED, LONG-EARED, SHORTEARED, and WHITE OF BARN OWLS. These birds, with the exception of the Owls, are of the greatest use in these countries. Otherwise, from the immense number of oxen that are annually killed, the atmosphere would become tainted by the carrion on the earth. From the luxurious repasts ever ready for them, they are found in vast numbers, and are so easily approached, that we have frequently shot specimens of them with our holster pistols. We may add that great quantities of crows and hawks of many varieties are found in Paraguay, which we are unable to name or classify. One variety of the former is apparently in close affinity to the vulture, being quite black and having no feathers on the head or neck. When feeding upon a carcass they seize the intestines and carry them through the air like a long rope, for a considerable distance. Similar to the vulture, too, they acknowledge a king, who is clothed with extremely white feathers, and flies accompanied by other crows, as by satellites. He always takes his quantum sufficit of food alone, the remainder of the flock standing around with forbearance, and at a respectful distance. His alar extent concurs with his color to make him quite conspicuous, being of about thirty-five inches.

In our consideration of the PIE KIND, it is not to be expected that the limits of this sketch will permit us to touch upon the

VOL. I. NO I. NEW SERIES,

5

one-twentieth part of its varieties that are to be found in Paraguay. In this class naturalists have placed a much greater variety of birds than any other family contains, and though they have some few qualities in common, in many others they are more or less widely dissimilar. It is a well-established opinion, for instance, that strict connubial fidelity is one of their virtues, and that, though living in harmony with each other, every species is true to its kind, and transmits an unpolluted race to its posterity. To this rule, however, we think there are many exceptions among the extensive tribe of Parrots, and perhaps one or two others. We placed the Crow of Paraguay and its affinities among the rapacious birds, because there it decidedly prefers all kinds of carrion, and is not omnivorous. Having had for so many centuries a sufficiency of that kind of food, its nature has probably undergone a corresponding change. Among those birds most common to our own country, and which are alike found in all parts of South America during our winter, we may mention the ORIOLES, chief singers of the forest; the BLACK-BIRDS, which are polygamous; the KING-BIRDS; the FLYCATCHERS, with all their varieties; together with the INDIGO-BIRD and the MOCKINGBIRD, Surdus Polyglottus of Wilson. This unrivalled singer makes the perennial forests vocal with his strains of powerful melody, learned from other birds in other climes. Nevertheless, the birds of Paraguay are much more musical than is generally allowed to be the case in tropical climes. By far the majority of our birds spend nearly half the year either in Mexico or South America, compelled to this course from the variability of our climate. But then these birds are silent, and seemingly occupied with the duty of supporting life. They resort to North America to breed during our summer. It is then, during the labors and the pleasures connected with their progeny, when singing their songs of love to their mates, or trilling forth some long note of defiance to a rival male, that we hear their delicious strains. But we doubt not that many of these birds range not only from Hudson's Bay to Mexico, but from Hudson's Bay to Cape Horn; and there are numerous tribes of them which seek the high elevation and

temperate climate of the southern part of Paraguay, just without the tropic, and there select their mates, raise their offspring, and delight the inhabitants with their songs. One great cause, perhaps, for their abundance in this region, may be found in the fact that Paraguay affords the first forests which South America contains, north of Cape Horn and east of the Andes, and the pampas cannot serve as a breeding-place for the PIE KIND, who all nestle in trees. The INDICATOR, Or HONEYGUIDE, is one of the most useful among them, for these forests contain large quantities of honey, which it would be difficult to find without some conductor to its various receptacles. This is found in the Indicator, which, calling with a shrill note morning and night, furnishes a certain clue to the concealed treasure.

We come now to the PARROT and its VARIETIES. With the exception of the Canary, this bird is probably the best known among us of all foreign birds, and is valued not only for its beauty, but also its power of imitating to a great degree the human voice. Fortunate it is for the ears of our countrymen, that our forests do not abound with them, like those of Paraguay. They would soon find that there is one sort of music which has no charms. We have often thought, when travelling there, that if Milton had ever been surrounded by a chorus of Parrots, alternating with an antiphon of monkeys, he would have been tempted to introduce their horrible noise into the description of his Pandemonium.

rub the place from which they have been plucked, until it grows red and blood flows from it; they then press into the sockets of the old feathers, juice of any color they wish, and thus impart the desired hue to the new growth. We consider the Parrot tribe as decidedly polygamous, and consequently believe that their varieties are constantly increasing, and probably at the present time number many hundreds.

Some two hundred varieties have been classified, from the proud and stormy Macaw tribe, down through all gradations of size and color to the smallest Parakeet, scarce larger than a humming-bird. They are all harmoniously beautiful, all discordantly noisy, and more than half the known varieties make the forests of Paraguay resound with a concert which, to our cars, was perfectly abominable. To those, however, who are fonder of regaling their stomach than their ears, these birds offer a most delicate repast, particularly whilst feeding upon the ripe guava. According to father Joseph Labrador, the Brazilians and Guaranis have a method of producing whatever tints in the feathers of these birds they desire. They pull them out by the roots when near the moulting season, and

Amongst the feathered tribes, however, the most interesting in its form, its color, and its habits, is the DovE or PIGEON. Faithful to its mate, its affectionate cares and devotion share the duties of incubation, and render domestic ties a pleasure. Ten varieties are found in Paraguay, of which we know little more than the plumage. To this class we must add the TouCAN, a bird whose bill is nearly as large as its whole body. The Toucan is one of the most remarkable birds in creation, and very beautiful. It lives upon the same food as the Parrot, and its flesh is very delicate and of superior flavor for the table. builds its nest like a Woodpecker, within the hollow of a tree, making only a hole large enough for ingress and egress. Here it sits guarding the entrance with its great beak, and it is a defence sufficiently formidable to keep off all the attacks of birds and serpents, and monkeys, more mischievous than all. There are many varieties, appearing at all seasons. The Red-billed and the Ariel are the largest, and are seen in vast numbers throughout the forests.

It

The beautiful family of CHATTERERS claims a place here, as one of those most sought after by naturalists. For aught we know, all the varieties of the Brazilian forest, and some others besides, are met with in this country. Edwards mentions several species in the region of the Amazon river, the most remarkable of which is the UMBRELLA CHATTERER, Cephalopeterus ornatus. This species is one of the rarest and most curious of South American birds, and derives its name from a tall crest of slender feathers upon the head. Like all Chatterers, they are fruit-eaters, and a delicacy for the table. We must pass over many other remarkable birds which belong to the Pie kind, as much from want of information concerning them, as to allow of a brief consideration of the remaining orders in Ornithology.

Paraguay presents the same marks of unsparing beneficence and bountiful profusion in the Poultry kind. This granivorous tribe makes no pretensions to any connubial attachment or fidelity, and contains a vast number of birds as yet undomesticated. Whilst the true originals of some of its domestic species are, through the lapse of ages, entirely extinct, our epicurean entertainments have a wide range in the future, as yet almost unattempted. In addition to the varieties of the common cock, peacock, turkey and guinea hen, very many species of the grouse, bustard, quail, pheasant, and some two or three of the partridge, abound in all parts of the Republic. The pheasant is not only one of the most beautiful of birds, but one of the most easily tamed; and it is strange that with the knowledge of this fact, our poultry yards are not stocked with them. Frank Forrester, (Mr. H. W. Herbert,) in his able sporting papers, positively says, that there is not a single variety of the pheasant in America. Mr. Herbert is mistaken. He may answer for North America, and for aught we know, some parts of South America, but he has never been in Paraguay. Natural History hitherto has drawn far larger resources in specimens and various species of this bird from the Eastern world than from our hemisphere; and though Asia probably contains a much greater variety, America will yet add another store to the family. The TRUMPETER is most abundant from the Amazon to the La Plata, and is characterized by the wonderful noise which it makes, and from which it was named. It is easily familiarized, and its attachment is strong. Of birds of the SPARROW KIND We have but little to say. Chiefly distinguished for their song, the large majority of them are occupants of the temperate zones. The presumption is, also, that possessing but little fidelity, promiscuous intercourse continually increases the varieties. The latter remark may, in a great measure, apply to the extended tribe of HUMMING-BIRDS, which deserve a more extended notice, and to which man has been unable to place any bounds. These lovely and delicate beings have ever excited the admiration of their discoverers, and, indeed, of every one who Las observed them, either revelling in their ative glades, or, shorn of their chief beau

ties, eternally at rest, in the artificial display of our museums. Sir Wm. Jardine mentions the historical fact, that the Mexicans used their feathers for superb mantles in the time of Montezuma. The Indian could appreciate their loveliness, delighting to adorn his bride with gems and jewelry plucked from the starry frontlets of these beauteous forms. Every epithet which the ingenuity of language could invent, has been employed to depict the richness of their coloring: the lustre of the topaz, of the emerald and the ruby, has been compared with them, and applied in their names. "The hue of roses steeped in liquid fire," and even the "Cheveux de l'astre du jour" of the imaginative Buffon, fall short of their versatile tints. These birds belong exclusively to the New World, and almost entirely to its tropical portion. In the wild and uncultivated parts of the latter, they inhabit those forests of magnificent trees, overhung with Lianas and the superb tribe of Bignonacea, the huge trunks clothed with a rich drapery of parasites, whose blossoms only yield in beauty to the sparkling tints of their airy tenants. The enthusiastic Audubon calls the only species of the Humming-bird that is found with us, the glittering fragment of a rainbow." From the Trochilus gigas, a bird about eight inches in length, to the T. Gouldii or T. magnificus, an inch and a half long, all sizes, tints and colors are found, far beyond the power of language or the painter's pencil to depict. Description is baffled, and an idea can only be conveyed by likening them to some familiar object, such as the bright and changing huc of steel, and other metals, united to the splendid tints of precious stones. M. Lesson's work contains two hundred and nineteen plates, and an account of nearly as many varieties already discovered. Yet when we think of the vast tropical expanse yet unknown to any save the LORD of the trackless forest, we may safely say, that the knowledge of the synonyms and economy of this wonderful tribe of birds is yet almost in its infancy.

Thus we leave the land birds of Paraguay, happy if we shall succeed in drawing the attention of naturalists to their beautiful selves, and still more beautiful country. In yet more astonishing profusion most kinds of WATER BIRDS find a rich

support in the magnificent rivers and lakes of interior South America, and, more local in their habits in tropical climes, than the generality of land birds, they are almost totally unknown a few hundred miles from the sea-board. Among birds of the CRANE KIND, OF WADERS, Grallatores, we can mention SANDERLINGS, PLOVER, ten varieties, CRANES, HERONS, and BITTERNS, in far greater number, but probably differing little, save in plumage, from the same species with us. We rank among the latter, though rather a separate species, the SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN, a solitary bird, and almost restricted to Paraguay. The banks of the Rio de la Plata and its confluent streams, are copiously supplied with RED FLAMINGOES, SPOONBILLS, AvoSETS, and four or five varieties of CURLEWS and SANDPIPERS. Many more of the lively SNIPE and delicious RAIL, promiscuously cotillionize in millions all over the country. And the GALLINUTES, OF WATER HEN, superior in its size and plentiful in its numbers, offers an opportunity of wholesale execution to the ardent sportsman.

To these may be added a vast collection of the DUCK KIND, or WEBB-Footed birds, Amongst the number, there are many varieties of TERN, some of which owe their discovery to Prince Neuwied, in Brazil; also GULLS of several species, the principal of which are the BLACKBACKED GULL, or COBB, Larus Marinus, Linn. This bird, though ordinarily feeding upon fish, may frequently be found in company with Vultures and Eagles, discussing the merits. of a putrid carcass. To these least useful of the webb-footed birds, we must append the most graceful, in the SWAN. And, notwithstanding the assertion of the poet, BLACK SWANS are found in all the rivers of southern South America, and their skins, with the feathers attached, are an article of considerable commercial value in the regions of the La Plata.

In reference to the WILD GEESE and DUCKS, with their very abundant varieties, we must be content to quote Father Dobrizhoffer when he says, "Water-fowl are so numerous, and of such various kinds, that it would fill a volume to describe them properly." "But of ducks there is such a variety and number, not only in the lakes but in the rivers also, that the water is oftentimes defiled so as to render

it unfit to be drunk." Probably some thirty varieties might reward the labors of the ornithologist, including therein many species of TEAL, and SHAG, and DARTERS in profusion. We conclude this enumeration with the PELICAN. A cosmopolite, it seems to be regardless of climate, latitude or longitude. No bird wanders so widely, or inhabits such a diversity of countries. Whether in Red-Russia or the Siberian lakes; along the Mediterranean, in Asia Minor, Greece, or the Propontis; or whitening the lakes of Egypt in winter, and the banks of Strymon in summer; whether on the Senegal and the Gambia, or at Madagascar, Siam, or the Philippines; whether on the coasts of Patagonia, California, Florida, or up to the 61° of northern latitude, nothing deters the wandering propensities of this, the largest of the webb-footed birds. It is, however, very scarce in the interior of America, for its favorite resort is on the seashore.

Of the ICHTHYOLOGY of Paraguay, we are unable to write much that would interest the reader. We have never seen there any North American or European fish of our acquaintance. We have, however, a list of fifteen names of fish indigenous to these lakes and rivers, but not one of which it is in our power to classify. These are all of most excellent flavor for the table, and comprise all sizes as high as a hundred pounds weight; their colors, likewise, being very various and beautiful. Among some of the more peculiar, we may mention the ARMADO, a Spanish term applied to it from the fact that the fish is armed almost at all points with sharp fins, with which it endeavors to wound the fisherman whilst securing it, emitting at the same time a loud harsh noise. Its head is round and incased in a very strong shell. Its eyes are small and surrounded by a circle of golden color, and its mouth is covered with a shaggy beard. The VAGRE is a species of Trout, very much resembling our brook Trout in its habits, and affording equal pleasure to the angler. LA VIEGA bears the similitude both of a fish and a turtle; for possessing the form of the one, it has the strong horny shell of the other. The RAYA is similar in form to an oval dish with a flat surface, and its mouth is placed in the middle of the body. Moreover, it is armed

with a formidable sting, said to be capable of inflicting death, unless prevented by immediate attention. But the PALOMETA is really a dangerous creature, and may, with propriety, be called the fresh-water shark. Its jaws are armed with fourteen very sharp triangular teeth, with which it is fully able to cut in two the human body. One species of fish, like the Doras Costalus of Demerara, has the singular property of travelling over land in seasons of severe drought, in search of water, and from the superabundance of its secretory ducts it never becomes dry as long as life continues. We must refer the reader to the fourth volume of Humboldt's Personal Narrative for an account of the GYMNOTUS or ELECTRICAL EEL. It may be sufficient to observe here, that their electric power far surpasses that of any known species of the TORPEDO. A kind of CRAB, as well as both land and water TURTLES, are most abundant here, and excellent for the table. A good account of the latter may be found in Edwards's "Voyage." SHRIMP, the delicacy of which all travellers to tropical America will readily recall, are very numerous in the fresh-water rivers of Paraguay.

But they are extremely small, and when taken by the net, they are first dried in the sun and then preserved as household provision. We recommend to M. Agassiz to take a trip to the interior of South America, before he returns to Europe again. There he may do more for Ichthyology in a short time, than he has yet done during his whole life, though that is enough for a full measure of fame and

renown.

Of ENTOMOLOGY we are obliged to acknowledge our utter and entire ignorance, and must be content with saying that South America affords to the lovers of insects the most boundless and untrodden field in nature. The naturalist Ray asserts that he discovered in England, within two or three miles of his residence, upwards of three hundred different kinds of one tribe of insects, (papiliones.) Therefore we would say to the ambitious Entomologist, that, should he be endued with the life and health of Methusaleh to follow this pursuit, we doubt whether, when he came to die, he would have become acquainted with a tithe of the insects contained within a thousand square miles of Paraguay.

Under this head, however, we must notice two or three pests which do not add to the otherwise exceeding comfort of a residence in this lovely region. The first is the CHIGOE OF JIGGER. The male is not unlike the common flea, and the abdomen of the female, like that of the queen of the white ants, the Cocci, enlarges to an enormous extent. These insects penetrate the skin of the toes near the nail, and there nestle and breed with wonderful rapidity; so that the sufferers soon behold their extremities in an awfully deformed and horribly disgusting condition, and a stranger would suppose that they must die by inches. But these insects are easily removed at first, and cause no inconvenience. Moreover a sure preventive is the constant use of shoes and stockings. Again Humboldt, Bonpland, and Gmellin all mention a species of gad-fly which attacks mankind. It deposits its egg under the skin of the abdomen, in which the grub remains six entire months. If molested it sinks deeper and deeper, and, creating ulcers or inflammation, often causes death. This is also simply provided against by clothing.

But there is a plague far worse than both of these, in what we commonly call the seven years' locust. This pestiferous insect is only a visitor within a circle around Asuncion of about fifteen leagues. In this they literally cover the land as with a shroud, for they bring grief andmourning to all. The time of their apo pearance is not regular, varying from tws. to five, or more generally eleven yeare, None can vouch from whence they comed or whither they go. Two kinds, the rm. and the black, are recognized among thehe Their eggs are deposited just beneath tch surface of the ground, the average of ea er female being about sixty, adhering togeth e in an oval foam. Their disappearancalways takes place upon the first moonlight after their coming, and they leave no growing thing behind them, but all is a scene of wide-spread desolation.

Let us turn now to more agreeable and profitable topics, so far, at least, as commercial interests are concerned. The vegetable kingdom, in Paraguay, presents the richest attractions, not merely to the professional botanist, but to the important class who devote themselves to mercantile enterprise. We shall pass over the splen