. Outing. two of the black witches,watching and waiting over the littletapir, were drawn off by a sound in thejungle and found a small band of pec-caries, those quarrelsome, saucy littleblack jungle pigs. With a great flutter-ing of wings and noiseless working ofbeaks, they hopped and flew along infront of the pigs as though trying toguide them to where the calf was lying,but by the time they came to the knoll,the mother tapir was standing beside heroffspring and the pigs, like the deer,passed harmlessly by. On two successive nights a big browncoaita mondi came waddling on flat,bearlike feet a
. Outing. two of the black witches,watching and waiting over the littletapir, were drawn off by a sound in thejungle and found a small band of pec-caries, those quarrelsome, saucy littleblack jungle pigs. With a great flutter-ing of wings and noiseless working ofbeaks, they hopped and flew along infront of the pigs as though trying toguide them to where the calf was lying,but by the time they came to the knoll,the mother tapir was standing beside heroffspring and the pigs, like the deer,passed harmlessly by. On two successive nights a big browncoaita mondi came waddling on flat,bearlike feet along a fallen trunk up tothe edge of the nest, its long, inquisi-tive nose wrinkling and sniffing and itslong, barred tail high in the air, but itwas only mildly curious and soon wentaway through the brush, seeking somesleeping bird or unwary lizard or agouti. One afternoon a band of pretty graysackiwinki monkeys bounded and racedthrough the trumpet trees, leaping frombranch to branch with never a miss or. A BIG BROWN COAITA MONDI CAME WADDLING ALONG A FALLEN TRUNK. fumble. At sight of the baby tapir theystopped short, gathered close together,and with many shrill chirps and whistlesheld earnest consultation, gesticulatingand grimacing. But their interest wasshort-lived, and they were soon offagain on their wild race through thejungle. Many birds, trogons, cassiques, mot-mots, cotingas, tanagers, flycatchers,hawks, came to the tapir nursery, hunt-ing and hunted, and paused for a fewmoments or, perhaps, lingered under theleaves for the passing of the daily rain,but always the witches watched andwaited. About a mile upstream, near the bankof the little river in the dense jungle,where the trees were matted and boundtogether by tangled lianas, grew a greatgreenheart, its flat, buttressed roots pro-jecting twenty feet above ground, thrustout from the trunk and forming betweentheir walls recesses ten or fifteen feetdeep. Across these roots on one side of the forest monarch had fallen
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade, booksubjectsports, booksubjecttravel
