Brazil and the Brazilians : portrayed in historical and descriptive sketches . grows a fleshy tubercle, two or three inches long and as thick as a quill, sparingly clothed with minute feathers : it is quite lax, and hangs down on one side of the birds head. The bird is remarkable for its loud, clear, ringing note,—like a bell,— which it utters at mid-day, when most other birds are silent. Waterton, in his wanderings in Demerara, often alludes to thecampanero, (uruponga.) In one passage he says, It never fails toattract the attention of thepassenger: at a distanceof nearly three miles youmay he
Brazil and the Brazilians : portrayed in historical and descriptive sketches . grows a fleshy tubercle, two or three inches long and as thick as a quill, sparingly clothed with minute feathers : it is quite lax, and hangs down on one side of the birds head. The bird is remarkable for its loud, clear, ringing note,—like a bell,— which it utters at mid-day, when most other birds are silent. Waterton, in his wanderings in Demerara, often alludes to thecampanero, (uruponga.) In one passage he says, It never fails toattract the attention of thepassenger: at a distanceof nearly three miles youmay hear this snow-whitebird tolling every four orfive minutes, like the dis-tant convent-bell. Fromsix to nine the forestsresound with the mingledstrains of the featheredrace; after this they gra-dually die away. Fromeleven to three all natureis hushed in midnightsilence, and scarce a noteis heard saving that of thecampanero. No bird has been moremisrepresented by artists than the uruponga. The mistake hasbeen in copying stuffed specimens. The accompanying illustration. 332 Brazil and the Brazilians. is one of many that represents the uruponga with a stiff horn inthe unicorn style. The hody is well enough, but the rhinoceros-appendage is utterly at variance with nature. The little engravingis a correct likeness of this singular bird, whose small, flexible, anddrooping appendage is very similar to that which is a part andparcel of every turkey cock. I was struck by the fact that, though the aquatic birds were atfirst startled by us, they did not seem to have much fear. Theyflapped their great wings and moved slowly from us a few paces,and then speedily resumed their former position. On, on sped our canoe under the sturdy strokes of Jose. Thescenery was still more striking and beautiful. A background ofhigh mountains was prefaced by gentle eminences and by a woodymargin of bright-green trees. Even the tall African, whom noone would have suspected of a taste for these glorious
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookidbrazilbrazilians00kidd
