50 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
leaves few things to be desired. The climate 
also is cool and agreeable. One of the things 
which especially attracted our attention 
was the presence of great swarms of dragon- 
flies hovering above the streets, blown into 
the city by the violent winds or pamperos 
which sweep across the level plains country. 
Mr. Cherrie and the writer were eager to 
devote every available moment to the zodlog- 
ical work, so leaving Messrs. Fiala and Sigg, 
whose duty it was to look after the handling 
of the large amount of impedimenta, we se- 
cured passage on the Argentine Northeastern 
Railroad, which had just inaugurated through 
service to Asuncion, Paraguay. We took 
only the small amount of equipment necessary 
for a few weeks’ work, as the two others 
were to come up with the remainder of our 
luggage via the first available freight boat. 
Our train was the second to make the through 
trip, and was scheduled to run biweekly. It 
was composed of seven Pullmans, two baggage 
cars and a dining car, and the service was 
good. Leaving Buenos Aires on the after- 
noon of Sunday, November 2, we reached 
Rosario at about dark. Here the train was 
run on to a steel boat and carried up river for 
about four hours, after which it continued the 
journey on the east bank of the Parana. 
The next night we recrossed the river on a 
ferry boat and were landed at Encarnacion, 
Paraguay. Asuncion was reached late in 
the afternoon of Tuesday. 
The railway journey had been through 
level plains country, interspersed at long 
intervals with small clumps and strips of low 
woods; but it is essentially a grazing country, 
and we passed numerous herds of cattle con- 
tentedly grazing in the vast, fence-inclosed 
ranges. Stalking calmly among the herds 
were small bands of rheas, semi-domesticated, 
but they were not abundant. I doubt if we 
saw thirty during the entire trip. Caracaras,! 
glossy ibises, jacanas,” rails and spur-winged 
plovers were numerous along the line, and 
frequently we saw the domed mud-nests of 
the oven-bird perched upon fence-posts or 
lower branches of trees. Villages are few 
and far between, and the natives, a motley 
crowd of dark-skinned individuals, usually 
left their shambling, grass-thatched huts and 
came down en masse to see the train. 
Asuncion is a quaint old town, plainly 
1Caracara: a member of the hawk family. 
2 Jacana: a bird that combines certain charac- 
teristics of both plover and rail. 
showing the marks of violence that have been 
left by frequent revolutions. Mr. Ferris, 
the American Consul, who rendered us every 
courtesy possible during our stay in the city, 
had witnessed five revolutions during his five 
years’ residence in the capital; there had been 
seven presidents in the same period of time. 
The streets are narrow and paved with 
cobblestones; the buildings are of the usual 
adobe style, white-washed and with tile roofs. 
There are one or two banks, a college, several 
churches, a public market and a number of 
good hotels, as well as fair electric car and 
light service; there is also the inevitable 
lottery. There is practically no business 
activity. An air of depression hangs over 
the people like a pall, and this may readily 
be accounted for when one recalls the tragic 
history of their country. Many of the women 
were in deep mourning, and one authority 
estimated that the proportion of women to 
men in the country was eleven to one, 
but I cannot vouch for the accuracy of his 
statement. 
After spending a few days at Asuncion, 
we were invited to the home of Professor 
Fiebrig, who lives at Trinidad, a short dis- 
tance away. Professor Fiebrig is a scientist 
of more than local note, an instructor in the 
University of Paraguay and curator of the 
Museum. Our first zodlogical work was done 
on his estate. All about were tracts of low 
forest of considerable size, patches of brush 
country, grassy fields and cultivated plots. 
Birds were very abundant, and as practically 
everything was new to us, our work was 
doubly interesting. We here formed our 
first intimate acquaintance with the peculiar 
white ani! (Guwira), large flocks of which were 
in the palm trees. The birds sat soberly on 
their perches, awkwardly jerked their tails 
from side to side and mewed dolefully. 
They seemed to be utterly out of place among 
the vivacious tanagers, creepers and finches, 
and to belong more properly to the fauna of 
some remote and unrecorded past. Mam- 
malian life was scarce, but considermg the 
short time available, a comparatively repre- 
sentative collection was made, including a 
series of a small rare wolf (Canis). We spent 
four days at Trinidad. 
Through the courtesy of the President of 
the Republic, a launch was placed at our 
disposal, and on November 11 we started on 
1 Member of a subfamily of the cuckoos. 
