. Our search for a wilderness; an account of two ornithological expeditions to Venezuela and to British Guiana . big bubble of air,( aught in the entrance of the serpents lair, frees itself witha sudden gasping sob. When the tide is rising or fallingover these large openings in the mud, the air escapes fromtime to time with the terrifying sound which has so longpuzzled us. Our mysterious nocturnal creature is thusexplained away in the prosaic light of day. An hour later as our dug-out rounds a sharp bend in thecano, there comes to our ears a series of rasping cries —-hoarse and creaking as of
. Our search for a wilderness; an account of two ornithological expeditions to Venezuela and to British Guiana . big bubble of air,( aught in the entrance of the serpents lair, frees itself witha sudden gasping sob. When the tide is rising or fallingover these large openings in the mud, the air escapes fromtime to time with the terrifying sound which has so longpuzzled us. Our mysterious nocturnal creature is thusexplained away in the prosaic light of day. An hour later as our dug-out rounds a sharp bend in thecano, there comes to our ears a series of rasping cries —-hoarse and creaking as of unoiled wheels. The glasses show THE LAND OF A SINGLE TREE. 27 28 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. a flock of large, brown, fowl-like birds in a clump of bushesoverhanging the water. Their barred wings and tall, delicatecrests tell us that they are the bird of all others which we hadhoped to see and study. We are floating within a hundredfeet of a flock of Hoatzins11—the strange reptile-like,-livingfossils which are found only in this part of the world, andwhich are closely related to no other living Fig. 13. Hoatzins in the Bamboos on the Guarapicfte. As we draw near, the birds flutter 111 rough the foliage as iftheir wings were broken. We find that this is their usualmode of progression, and for a most interesting after the young Hoatzins are hatched and while yetunfledged they are able to leave the- nesl and climb about thebranches, and in this they art greatly aided by the use of thewings as arms and hands. The three lingers of the wing are THE LAND OF A SINGLE TREE. 29 each armed with a reptile-like claw, and at the approach ofdanger the birds climb actively about like squirrels or lizards. It has usually been thought that when they grow up theylose all these reptilian habits and behave as conventional feath-ered bipeds should. But we find that while, of course, thefingers are deeply hidden beneath the long flight-feathers ofthe wing, yet these very feat
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