HOMES OF TOUCANS 193 



small wasp whose actions seemed to indicate that her cell 

 was nearby. Happening to glance upward, he saw a tou- 

 can, one of the red-billed species, sitting on a branch close 

 to a hole in a great tree about fort}^ feet from the ground. 

 The bird slipped quietly from sight almost at once, but the 

 evidence was extremely strong. The tree was a kakaralli 

 {I^ecythis sp.), not of great girth, but tapering so gradu- 

 ally that, sixty feet up, its diameter seemed hardly less than 

 at the ground. While lacking the wide, sweeping buttresses 

 of the morass, it yet gave the impression of tremendous 

 strength and longevity. From its upper branches depended 

 a whole nexus of intertwined lianas, themselves in some 

 cases, as large as good-sized tree trunks. 



This was on March 27, and for three days we watched 

 silently and in turn, and at last were satisfied that this was 

 indeed the home of the red-billed toucan. No creature short 

 of a monkey or squirrel could have scaled that great trunk, 

 so on the third day at six o'clock in the morning in a fairly 

 hard rain, we started out on our third toucan adventure. 



We cut in tiu"n as usual, five minutes of the punishing 

 effort being all that our muscles and soft palms would stand. 

 The leaves dripped on all sides; they shone and glistened; 

 every twig was black with moisture. Now and then in the 

 midst of the downpour, at an unusually loud ring of the 

 axe, a goldbird called — silvery, piercing, thrilling — a call 

 full of pent-up virility and wildness. Fortunately for us 

 the majestic tree was soft at the heart, else the raw blisters 

 woidd liave compelled us to wait for another day. 



The last few cuts were always wildly exciting. A shout 

 from one of the w.atchers at a distance, warned me that the 

 end was near, although from my place close to the butt no 

 swaying was perceptible. Then I bit deeply with the axe 

 and a. faint snap was heard — like the snap of a small twig — 

 the beginning of the death rattle of the splendid giant. 

 There was no need of another cut, the deciding fibre had 



