112 TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



wholly unexpected tragedies occurred, great leaves falling 

 upon and blotting out eggs and young, fruit growing into 

 the nests and smothering the nestlings. And as if this were 

 not enough, parents occasionally left their healthy young 

 without apparent reason and commenced a new nest nearby, 

 the first brood perishing miserably in full view of their cal- 

 lous, unnatural parents. Cuckoos and cowbirds were always 

 waiting the opportunity to parasitize suitable nests, and not 

 infrequently birds would wantonly destroy each others' nests 

 or those of other species. 



These and a host of other dangers, resulted in a per- 

 centage of mortality which was appalling. Toward the end 

 of my stay, when I wished a photograph of eggs and nest, 

 I never dared leave them for a day, but took them home if 

 the camera had been left, and replaced them at my next 

 visit. This mortality fell into place with the notes I have 

 made in past years in distant parts of the tropics, and gained 

 tremendously in significance when I considered it in connec- 

 tion with such subjects as breeding seasons and numbers of 

 eggs and young. 



The roosting places of birds are little known and yet, 

 since I have begun to devote considerable time to discovering 

 and studying them, I have found that they possess signifi- 

 cance in many ways other than being the nearest branch on 

 which to rest in sleep throughout the night. I have else- 

 where mentioned the interesting change of habits of such 

 birds as parrots, parrakeets and caciques, which at nightfall 

 desert the jungle for a safer roost in the open clearing near 

 human habitations. In another chapter I have taken up in 

 detail the importance of arboreal and terrestrial roosting 

 habits of the two genera of tinamou found near Bartica. 

 Of the roosting of many groups of birds I know nothing. 

 The dusk of the jungle would shut down and until they 

 began calling and feeding early next morning, they ceased 

 to exist as far as I was concerned. 



