ECUADOR 233 
off into the swirling mass, completely disappearing for a while, 
then suddenly breaking surface and leaping on to the tree trunk 
as the water rushed madly past. After a while I thought that I 
would go closer to see if he would take flight, but not a bit of it: 
he sought refuge in the foaming angry waters dashing themselves 
against boulders and rocks on their way to the sea. He had dived 
in upstream and I rushed up to see where he would surface, but 
never saw the bird again. There was no fringing vegetation to 
obscure the view, so he must have threaded his way a considerable 
distance up the river, dodging numerous rocks, before rounding a 
bend out of view. 
Ecuador is a most interesting country for the ornithologist, but 
to anyone wishing to accomplish a certain task in a limited time 
it can be most exasperating. The Ecuadorian country folk have 
little sense of responsibility, and even less of time. They cannot 
and will not understand why anything should be done on a cer- 
tain day, if it can possibly be left over to some future date. Con- 
sequently, arranging for transport in the way of porters or mules 
was a business calculated to try one’s temper to the utmost, for 
usually all the arrangements misfired. The people concerned 
seemed most surprised if asked why they had failed to turn up, as 
if we were being very unreasonable. 
My luck was not of the best in Ecuador, and I had a series of 
rather disappointing adventures, but the final episode capped 
everything. This occurred when the collection was being trans- 
ported from Quito to the coast. It was a two-day journey by rail, 
with a halt for the night at the half-way station. After I had paid 
an enormous sum for a truck to be attached to the passenger train, 
and made all the arrangements with the heads of the railway de- 
partments for the journey, someone detached the truck and at- 
tached it to a goods train in the middle of the night, when we 
were sleeping at the halt. I awoke at 5 a.m. to find that my birds 
had gone. My feelings can be imagined, as nectar-feeders cannot 
live long without food. I had to dash around getting heads-of- 
departments out of bed, and some were most annoyed, but through 
threatening to hold them responsible for the whole affair if there 
