164 TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



oiisly in every direction. No slacker lie, crouching flat or 

 awaiting his mother's directing cries. From the moment he 

 was left alone he began to depend upon the warnings and 

 signs wliich his great beady eyes and skinny ears conveyed to 

 him. Hawks and vultures had swept low over his nest and 

 mother unheeded. Coolies in their boats had paddled under- 

 neath with no more than a glance upward. Throughout his 

 w*eek of life, as though his parents' and their parents' par- 

 ents' lives, no danger had disturbed their peaceful existence. 

 Only for a sudden wind storm such as the week before had 

 upset nests and blown out eggs, it might be said that for the 

 little hoatzin chicks life held nothing but siestas and munch- 

 ings of pimpler leaves. 



But one little hoatzin, if he had any thoughts such as 

 these, failed to count on the invariable exception to every 

 rule, for this day the totally imexpected happened, and fate, 

 in the shape of enthusiastic scientists, descended upon him. 

 He was not for a second disconcerted. If we had concen- 

 trated upon him a thousand strong, by boats and by land, he 

 would have fought the good fight for freedom and life as 

 calmly as he waged it against us. And we found him no 

 mean antagonist, and far from reptilian in his ability to meet 

 new and unforeseen conditions. 



His mother, who a moment before had been packing 

 his capacious little crop with predigested pimpler leaves, had 

 now flown off to an adjoining group of mangroves, where 

 she and his father croaked hoarse encouragement. His 

 flight feathers hardly reached beyond his finger tips and his 

 body was covered with a sparse coating of sooty black down. 

 So there could be no resort to flight. He must defend him- 

 self, bound to earth like his assailants. 



Hardly had his mother left when his comical head, with 

 thick, blunt beak and large intelligent eyes appeared over 

 the rim of the nest. His alert expression was increased by 

 the suspicion of a crest on his crown, where the down was 

 slightly longer. Higher and higher rose his head, supported 



