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ANIMAL MIGRATIONS 379
the grey of the evening and morning, is one of the
first things that strikes the attention of the voyager
on the Amazon.
The periodical appearance of certain birds in a
district has been supposed by the inhabitants to
have some mysterious connection with the Christian
festivals. Thus there are two beautiful little birds
in Maynas, apparently belonging to different genera,
for one of them is a Seven-coloured Tanao-er
o
(Pajaro de siete colores), and the other (which I
have not is seen) said to be of a bright blue colour
and ; differently shaped but both are called by the
Indians Huata-pisco (Bird of the Year), because
they make their appearance together,
in large
flocks, about the end of the year (people
will tell
you, precisely on Christmas Day), and remain
throughout January, when they are seen no more
until the same epoch comes round again. Mr.
Bates has given a capital account of the movements
of these hunting-parties of frugivorous and insec-
tivorous birds, and of the superstition of the Papauira
or Patriarch Bird, who is supposed to head
them (vol. ii.
p. 333 et
seq.\
I suspect that this is
something more than mere superstition, and that
the Patriarch leaders are not one but several to
each predatory band.
DISTRIBUTION OF FISHES
The abundance of fish in rivers of white water,
and their scarcity in black-water rivers, may easily
be shown to depend chiefly on the luxuriant littoral
vegetation of the former and its scarcity
absence in the latter ; for
or utter
on the Rio Negro there