130 Mr. C. W. Wyatt on the Birds of Columbia. 



by a spot of cleared ground, on which a shed had been erected 

 for the use of travellers. Two years ago this forest had never 

 been penetrated by man. 



But the country, which we thought to be flat as we looked down 

 upon it from the mountains, proved very difi'erent when we tra- 

 versed it. We were ever crossing valleys, until we were within a 

 day's journey of the river. Birds were scarce and difficult to get 

 at, as the forest was impenetrable. Among those we shot were 

 the rare PufF-birds, Monasa pallescens and Bucco pectoralis, and 

 Trogon chionurus. The noise here in the early morning was 

 truly astonishing, and very difi'erent from the early morning in 

 the mountain-forests, where the notes of various birds alone 

 break the stillness ; here the Peccary, Jaguar, and Monkeys were 

 amongst the denizens, One morning as we rode along, we 

 heard amongst the various cries and notes, what we took to be 

 the toll of a Bell-bird [Chasmorhynchus) . It sounded to us, how- 

 ever, more hke the striking of a large clock than the tolling of 

 a bell. Each note or strike was perfectly distinct ; but there 

 was no lengthened interval between*. 



And who can say what rarities may not exist in these forests ? 

 But probably no naturalist will ever pay them more than a passing 

 visit. The heat, insects, and malaria arising from decaying vege- 

 tation render life in them hardly supportable; and I think the 

 wish of every one will be to get out of them as soon as possible. 

 No one can understand, unless he has been in such a place in 

 such a climate, what the longing is to see the sun sink and the 

 dread of seeing it rise again. " What is a man to do in a cli- 

 mate like this ? " said the Venezuelan store-keeper at Puerto 

 Nacional, " We live like dogs, and cannot help it." 



We had to wait for four days at the lake of Paturia. The early 

 morning, and the evening, from 4 to 6 o'clock, we spent in 

 shooting, going about in canoes. The remainder of the day it 

 was too warm to stir out. One evening, an hour after the sun 

 had set, the thermometer marked 90°. From the lake we 



* [No Bell-bird has yet been obtained in this disti-ict. If Chasviorhyn- 

 chus really occurs here, the species would not be the true Bell-bird of 

 Guiana, C. niveus, but more probably either C. varieyatus of Venezuela, 

 or C, tricarunculatusoiYexeigu& — possibly, however, a new species! — P]d.] 



