o+ THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
Government, and was our “home’’ during 
the weeks that followed, until we reached 
Porto Campo. Besides Colonel Roosevelt, 
there were on board, Colonel Candido Mari- 
ano da Silva Rondon, Mr. Kermit Roosevelt, 
Captain Amilcar de Magalhées, Mr. Reis 
the photographer, a physician, a taxidermist 
and myself. Mr. Cherrie remained at Uru- 
cim to finish the work in that locality, and 
the commissaries were detained in Corumba. 
We reached the landing at the Estate Palmi- 
ras just at dusk and spent the night aboard, 
preparing the skin of a giant anteater which 
had been shot by Colonel Roosevelt near the 
river. Early next morning the party was 
in the saddle, galloping across the grassy 
marshes. Here and there small clumps of 
trees and thorny bushes dotted the marshes, 
and these were teeming with birds of many 
species: parrots, parrakeets and macaws 
flashed by with raucous shrieks, and fly- 
catchers calmly surveyed the cavalcade from 
the uppermost branches. Occasionally we 
flushed a small flock of teals and, in the 
distance we saw ibises and jabirus standing 
in the long grass, like white specks in a sea of 
green. In spots the marshes were drying, the 
ground covered with fish; in the small pools 
an almost solid mass of fishes wriggled in the 
shallow water which had been churned into 
thin mud, and at the borders, numbers con- 
stantly leapt out; the ground wasstrewn with 
the dead and dying myriads of many species. 
The ranch house or fazenda was reached 
at noon; it was an interesting place, the long, 
low rambling buildings forming a square 
with an open court in the center in which 
trees and flowers grew, and chickens and pigs 
roamed at will. All about lay marshes, 
papyrus swamps, fields and forests. Num- 
erous herds of half-wild cattle grazed on this 
vast range, and in the papyrus thickets, 
marsh deer were not uncommon. The main 
object of this excursion, was the lordly 
jaguar and a magnificent pair were taken by 
Colonel Roosevelt and his son after several 
all-day hunts. Another giant anteater, sev- 
eral deer and a capybara! were collected; also 
a splendid series of the rare and beautiful 
byacinthine macaw was added to our rapidly 
growing list of treasures. 
Returning to Curumb4 on the evening of 
December 24, we were joined by the other 
members of the expedition and immediately 
1Capybara: the largest existing rodent, re- 
sembling the guinea pig. 
proceeded on the up-river voyage toward 
Sao Luis de Caceres. A short side trip was 
made up the Rio Sao Lourengo, with brief 
stops at various points where there were 
evidences of game; and numbers of birds, 
including screamers, penelopes,! parrots and 
various species of water-fowl were collected, 
also numbers of small rodents, monkeys, 
deer and pecearies. The jabiru storks were 
nesting on the Sao Lourengo, their great 
platform nests of sticks perched in the 
crotches of giant trees. The young storks, 
two in number and fully feathered, were 
continually exercising their limbs by running 
back and forth in the nest, flapping their 
wings all the while, preparatory to launching 
forth into the big world. 
Caymans were particularly plentiful in the 
Upper Paraguay. Scores of the evil-looking 
creatures lay on the sand banks, with wide- 
open mouths and staring glassy eyes. A 
fringe of trees flanked the water through 
which we could see the boundless wastes of 
pantanals beyond; troops of black howling 
monkeys ambled leisurely away as the boat 
drew near, and a species of curious gray- 
throated parrakeet was building tremendous 
nests in the branches; occasionally in the 
same tree there were two or three nests each 
several feet in diameter, which the birds were 
entering and leaving like bees at a hive. 
Sado Luis de Caceres was reached January 
15, and at noon the next day the ‘‘ Nyoac”’ 
weighed anchor again and pointed her nose 
up-stream. That night we reached a small 
station known as Porto Campo, and as the 
river was too shallow to permit the steamer 
to ascend further, our effects were taken 
ashore and tents erected for a temporary 
camp. A few days’ hunt at this point re- 
sulted in an addition to the collection of 
tapirs and white-lipped peccaries shot by 
Colonel Roosevelt, besides a goodly amount 
of smaller material. The preservation of 
the larger specimens was somewhat of a 
problem as the time at our disposal was 
wholly inadequate, and there was practically 
no available native help. All the skinning 
and preparation was done by Kermit Roose- 
velt and the writer, although at times valu- 
able assistance was rendered by Mr. Sigg. 
January 13 found the expedition aboard a 
launch (one boatload had preceded us) 
struggling against the swift current of the 
1 Penelope: a small South and Central Ameri- 
can bird, a small curassow, related to the guan. 
