176 TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



But the victory was nioiiieiitary. A frantic wave and 

 clutch at the empty air, and it pitched forward and hung 

 upside down. This time it was suspended by the toe grip, 

 which, useless upon level ground, was its strongest safeguard 

 among l^ianches. It was almost impossible to pull a fledg- 

 ling hoatzin from the branch when once its feet had obtained 

 a firm hold. Each toe had to be uncurled in turn. The sec- 

 ond righting was a quicker matter, more skillfully achieved. 

 'J^he chin hold was taken at once and the wing claws fol- 

 lowed. If a well-twigged branch were now placed within 

 reach, the bird easily retained its upright position and 

 climbed with facility, wing over wing. , 



The illustrations from drawings, of the young hoatzins, 

 which for many years have done duty in volume after vol- 

 ume of our ornithological literature, are almost without ex- 

 ception incorrect. To consider only one instance, the widely 

 copied drawing by Baldwin, which first appeared in the pub- 

 lications of the United States National Museum, errs in 

 representing the young bird as gripping a twig in its man- 

 dibles. In all my experience I have never observed this, al- 

 tliough the chin hold is the most conmion method of begin- 

 ning a climb. It is this habit, which, carelessly observed, led 

 to the mistaken idea that the bird actually grasped the twig 

 in its beak. In the same drawing the second hoatzin nest- 

 ling is shown as standing almost flat-toed on the upper sur- 

 face of a branch, a position which, as we know from its in- 

 ability to stand for a moment upon flat ground, is impossible. 



In the water I found that the young hoatzin displayed 

 two very distinct methods of progression. If dropped into 

 a deep basin or tub, it always landed head first, even when it 

 had to turn partly over in mid-air to accomplish this. Al- 

 most at once it came to the surface, the head, neck and tail- 

 feathers projecting, and the back being flush with the sur- 

 face. It would start to swim immediately, easily but slowly. 

 It held its wings extended loosely on each side so that they 



