GUAYARAPO 209 



to get the boats and cargo over the dam. Pedro Hospe- 

 dales and Chichi were in the meantime most profitably 

 engaged adding specimens to my ornithological collection. 

 They had come across an inga-tree ' in full flower where 

 they obtained, besides other hummers, ten specimens of 

 one of the amethystine humming-birds {CallipMox ame- 

 thystina). Although I had spent eight months on the 

 Caura collecting birds, in 1897 and 1898, we never obtained 

 any examples of this humming-bird, nor did we during 

 the whole of this expedition meet with any except on 

 this occasion. The rocky bed of the dam over which the 

 river rushes was covered with a thick growth of Neolacis 

 conjmbosa. Wherever there were pools of greater depth, 

 other aquatic plants, including a Nipnjjhcea, existed. Small 

 flocks of noisy jacanas had taken possession of these pools 

 far from the haunts of men, and here many of them 

 might have ended their days in peace had not my ' boys ' 

 decided that the cackling jacana deserves a place in every 

 collection of birds. 



We paddled steadily for a whole day, passing many 

 sandbanks on which were families of terns of three or 

 four individuals. These birds build no nest ; they simply 

 scoop a shallow pit in the sand where they lay their eggs, 

 upon which they sit fully exposed to the burning rays 

 of the sun. It was late in the afternoon when we reached 

 that part of the river called Guayarapo. At this place 

 the Caura widens out considerably and flows through 

 hundreds of islands by a perfect labyi'inth of channels. 

 Many of the islands are of rock, with shrubs and stunted 

 trees growing in the hollows like those at the rapids of 

 Mura and Piritu ; others of larger size are of earth, and 

 they support a much more vigorous vegetation. While 

 ' Inga ingoides. 



P 



