Old Apollinario was useful to me in taking care of my poultry. I had great quantities of the common fowl, and as I had cleared the land to a considerable distance around the house, the fowls had a good range without being molested by the foxes. I had ducks, turkeys, and pigeons; the young of these last were frequently destroyed by the _timbu_; this animal is about the size of a small cat, and has a long tail, which is scaly and whitish; the colour of the body is dark brown, with two white stripes from the nose to the tail down the back; the head is long, and the snout is pointed; it has an abdominal pouch, which is large. When pursued, it soon surrenders, by coiling itself up in its tail. I give the description as I received it, for although we watched oftentimes for the purpose of catching one of these animals, we were not successful. I had some geese at Jaguaribe and at Itamaraca, but from what cause I know not, the young ones were scarcely ever reared. Many other persons had found equal difficulty in this respect with myself. Guinea-fowls are esteemed, but give much trouble, for their unaccommodating disposition renders it necessary to keep them separate from all other kinds of fowl. There is only one pair of peacocks in Pernambuco; they are in the garden of the widow of a merchant, in the neighbourhood of Recife. Snipes and wild ducks are to be found in low marshy grounds; and upon the island at certain times of the year there were great numbers of wild doves. The bees which I have seen at some of the farm-houses are preserved in a part of the trunk of the tree in which they had originally been found; the tree is cut down, and the portion containing the nest is brought home. The bees are black, and much smaller than those of Europe, nor is their bite nearly so painful; the log of wood in which they are preserved is sawed or cut in some particular manner, which I cannot exactly describe, by which means the honey can be taken out. The honey is always liquid. It is used as a medicine rather than as food, for the small quantities of it which are to be obtained, render the demand of it for the medical men fully equal to the supply.[139]