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highest trees are ilying ubuut. Others oflu-ightest scarlet, '-•' witli 

 bands of sombre •hue, and some witli simply bhick velvet and 

 orange spots and tips, flit here and there. Dragon-Hies in 

 plenty skim to and fro. Now and again, a covey of tiny 

 bats spring up from the bushes on the bank and flit out into 

 the sunshine for an instant, to settle again — a living Jacob's 

 ladder — head downwards on the stem of some tall reed, their 

 noses all turned inquisitively towards the boat, while their • 

 colour, a dark ash-grey, matches their resting place so Avell, 

 that had we not seen them ily to it, we should pass them by 

 as being only dead leaves on the stem, the colour of Avhich 

 they so closely assimilate. A Qu'est ce qu'il ditf in a gorgeous 

 yellow vest and brown coat, eyes us from his atrial seat, and, 

 vigorously sharpening his strong black bill on the bough, im- 

 pertinently asks us. " What do you say '? " A loud discordant 

 cry, and amongst the branches lower down we see three or 

 four mel corbeaux:}: or black tick birds hopping about, and 

 balancing themselves with their long tails while they erectly 

 hold their heavily billed and clumsily formed heads, watching 

 our approach. A small iguana, asleep on a sun-lit spot of 

 baked mud-bank, is shot dead, and is a prize, for the new 

 growth of tail proves what has been doubted by some one, 

 that these lizards, like the otliers, reproduce their caudal 

 appendages. More civilized regions are reached at length, and 

 a cocoa estate borders the right bank. A pretty Hindoo girl 

 stands on a log to look at us as we pass, the bracelets on her 

 shapely arms shining in the sun, and the wind streaming her 

 long veil out behind her — a capital picture. Near her is her 

 mother, a Avithcred old woman, dressed exactly like her 

 daughter, squatting on the earth, hardly lifting her eyes from 

 some task she is engaged in. A chubby little coolie calls our 

 attention to '•' a duck " on the opposite bank- After some 

 trouble, a movement in the bush is seen, and a shot directed 

 towards the spot is the death of a handsome bird, || the small head, 

 long legs, and disproportionately great toes of which forcibly 

 remind us of the water heu or coot of our English lakes and 

 ponds. A little further, and on a long spit of mud where the 

 Caroni makes a wide sweeping bend, and a small rivulet, from the 

 direction of St. Joseph, joins it, lie several huge logs, which 

 suddenly become endowed w-iih. life, we find out to be alligators, 

 as they slide into their watery retreat, A little grey striped 

 bird, like a snipe, ^j is not so wise, and falls a victim to his intre- 



Heliconicc. t Saurophagus sidphuratus, Lin, 



X Grotopha<ja Ani. i' Ralhis lomjirostris. 



•[ GalUnago ivilsonii. 



