146 A NATURALIST IS THE GUIANAS 



wounded and captured by one of the peons, who had been 



detailed specially for the purpose of taking him dead or 



alive. The owner of the fowls off which he had feasted, 



and her friends, had the grim satisfaction in this instance 



of hanging him over a slow fire while they sat cheerfully 



around enjoying his sufferings as he was slowly roasted 



to death. Such is the fate of the Guaco when he happens 



to be taken alive by the people on the Caura. Of all the 



places I have visited, Tucumay, about thirty miles south 



•of the city of Panama, is the spot where I collected most 



hawks. Close to the hut where we lived, which was in 



-an open savanna where a good many cattle were kept, 



-a swamp several square miles in extent exists. The 



swamp is fringed with a belt of forest, which was the 



abode, when I stayed there, of large numbers of water-fowl. 



Many hawks of different kinds also inhabited this belt 



of wood. The country around consists of rolling plains 



covered with a short coarse grass. During the dry season 



this grass is set on fire, so that with the first rains the 



■cattle may get the benefit of fresh green food. The 



natives told me that a reddish-brown hawk, of which 



I secured some specimens, was in the habit of taking 



advantage of these savanna fires for having a regular 



feast. These hawks, according to their statements, keep 



• circling over the smoke just in front of the advancing fire, 



ready to pounce upon any lizards or serpents attempting 



to escape from the fiery death behind them. The natives 



have in consequence christened this bird Bcber-humo — 



' The smoke-drinker.' May it not be that the birds also 



devour the half-roasted bodies of the lizards and snakes 



overtaken by these fires ? 



If the Guaco considers that he is entitled to levy a 

 toll on the poultry yards, the rice-bird is convinced that 



