62 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



steamer had stopped at almost every house on the river and we had 

 gone ashore and explained to the residents that we were in the mar- 

 ket for snakes, lizards, and small animals. On the down voyage we 

 discovered that we had demoralized, at least temporarily, the entire 

 population of the river. They had stopped other work and gone out 

 collecting, usually with very poor success, but at almost every settle- 

 ment there was something for us. Various small creatures in quakes 

 ( openwork Indian baskets used for carrying vegetables but adapted 

 to the confinement of animals for us) were brought aboard the boat 

 and after the usual amount of gesticulation were purchased and 

 placed on the deck of the steamer, to the consternation of the steward- 

 ess responsible for the condition of that deck. We trust that by 

 this time all traces of our menagerie have been removed. 



At Georgetown we found Mr. Lowe who had come down from 

 Mackenzie with his catch, and we combined the collections in a large 

 storeroom beneath the Park Hotel, through the courtesy of the man- 

 agement. Mr. Lowe remained here while Mrs. Mann and I made a 

 hurried trip eastward into Berbice, in the hope of securing some 

 Surinam toads. Dr. Roth of the Georgetown Museum had told us 

 that he believed Pipa did not exist in British Guiana but we hoped 

 to find it towards Surinam. 



Berbice is low and flat, tenanted largely by Hindus. One had the 

 impression one was crossing the Punjab, except that the Punjab is 

 never flooded as was this area. Wading birds swarmed, white egrets, 

 blue herons, jacanas, and gallinules predominating, and we saw many 

 readheaded troupials. 



We had been introduced by telephone to our host, G. M. Eccles, at 

 Blairmont on the Courantyne River, and his first question to us was 

 " Where do you expect to find these toads ? ' : There was a canal be- 

 side a canefield and we asked how long it had been there. He told us 

 that it had been dug about a hundred years before, so it seemed prob- 

 able that if the toad existed in the area it might be found in the mud 

 at the bottom of the canal. Mr. Eccles thereupon had the canal 

 drained for us. A half -day's exploration of ooze 6 inches deep re- 

 sulted in the finding of nothing but some catfish. Mr. Eccles placed 

 a car at our disposal and we crossed the Courantyne River on a ferry 

 and scouted the countryside, dipping in pools with nets and raking 

 mud and weeds from the bottom, but still with no success. 



The Surinam toad lives in Surinam, so we decided, despite the 

 short amount of time at our disposal, to go there. A half -day's auto- 

 mobile trip took us to Springlands, the last British settlement. The 

 customs boat took us across to Nickeri, where Mr. Gordon of the 



