In my rides to Recife through the Merueira wood I always heard the hoarse croaking of the _sapo cururu_ (_rana ventricosa_), and also of the _sapo boi_ or ox-toad, both of which made a most disagreeable and dismal noise; they were particularly active on the rainy night which I have above described. The constant noise which the crickets make as soon as the sun sets, fails not to annoy those persons who have recently arrived in the country; and I recollect that on the first evening which I spent in the country on my arrival at Pernambuco, I stopped several times when conversing, as if waiting to let the noise cease before I proceeded; but this wore off (as it does with every one), and latterly I did not hear the noise even when it was spoken of in my presence. However if one of them gets into a house, there is no resting until it be dislodged, owing to the shrillness of its whistle. The body of the insect is about one inch or one inch and a half in length, and the legs are long; the whole of the insect is green. There is another species which is distinguished by the name of _gryllo branco_, or the white cricket; it has likewise a sharp whistle; may not this be the same insect as the former, in a different state? There is likewise the _gryllo de feijam_ or bean cricket, which is so called from the destruction which it makes in the plantations of the French bean; it is of a dusky brown colour, approaching to black. I was invited in January 1815 to attend a christening at the sugar plantation of Macaxeira, which is the largest and the most valuable in every respect of the three in the island. The vicar, another priest, a captain of the _ordenanças_, and myself, set off early on the morning of the day appointed. We rode through the plantation of St. Joam, and spoke to the owner, who was preparing to follow us with all his family. He is a Portugueze who has accumulated a large fortune in Brazil, and has married one of the daughters of the owner of the place to which we were going. This person and his immediate relatives will in the course of a short time probably possess one half of the island of Itamaraca. We were received at Macaxeira by the father and uncles of the child; and afterwards the grandmother, who is a widow lady and the owner of the estate, made her appearance, and by degrees we saw the younger ladies of many of the neighbouring families. As soon as the christening was over, the day was devoted to eating and drinking and playing at cards. When the men had left the table after dinner, the cloth was again laid, and the ladies sat down to dine; but one of the priests declared that this separation was barbarous, and seating himself again, was followed by several other men, and thus they dined a second time. The evening ended rather boisterously, but good humouredly; the wine was poured out into tumblers, and these being as frequently emptied as if they had been smaller, only a few of the guests returned home the