106 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
out of the fruit. In a new field of operation far from my head- 
quarters I had hung up a number of bananas by the usual method 
of suspending them singly on a string, and then, having a number 
left over, decided to leave the can in the forest for future opera- 
tions. For safety I tied it to the tip of a spindly sapling branch, 
too high from the ground to be reached by vermin. Alas, when 
I returned the following day I found the can on the ground empty 
and licked clean! Who was the culprit? Like much of this forest 
the bed in this part was wet and muddy, and in one or two places 
I saw what I took to be the spoor of a coati (or coatimund1). 
This animal is a good climber, and he was evidently so smitten 
with the smell of this specially prepared sweetmeat that he had 
climbed up the trunk and along the thin branch, finally hanging 
on and dragging the can to earth. I had left six bananas soaked 
in the strong rum, and judging by the spoor the thief’s steps were 
very unsteady as he made off! 
It is well known that coatis have an extraordinarily keen sense 
of smell and also a liking for perfume, so no doubt the rum had 
the same attraction for this fellow as for the morphos. It is inter- 
esting to watch a captive coati that has been given some object, 
such as a piece of cloth, sprinkled with scent. He will become 
very excited and rub the cloth on his tail and then go to sleep with 
his now sweet-smelling appendage wrapped round his head. 
“Experientia docet” is a saying that applies aptly to rambling 
on one’s own in a tropical forest. One day, in an attempt to catch 
a trogon, I had to wade across a shallow swampy place, and it was 
some hours before I returned and reached the point where I had 
crossed an insignificant creek. At first I thought I had lost my 
sense of direction and hit on another swamp, for I was confronted 
with a wide and deep expanse of water. I then realized that the 
tidal waters of the Essequibo had spread their tentacles and had 
found their way up a large creek, then a smaller one, finally 
seeping through the low-lying parts of the forest bed. As I had 
been successful on my trogon hunt, I was anxious to get back 
quickly with my charge, now sitting quietly in a bag. Walking till 
nearly out of my depth, I held the much-prized trogon and a bag 
of nets at arm’s-length above my head, then gently lay back and 
swam back-stroke with my feet till I gained the opposite bank. 
