218 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



real, but it is better known all over Venezuela as Tigana, 

 Sun-bitterns are easily domesticated and get quite tame. 

 I have often seen them wandering about the houses and 

 flying up on the dinner-tables to catch flies. They are 

 expert insect catchers, rarely missing their prey. They 

 have a curious habit of swaying their bodies from side to 

 side in a listless monotonous manner, but the sight of 

 an insect within range will at once call forth all their 

 energies. A steady aim, a quick lunge of the pointed 

 beak, and the victim is caught and swallowed. The horo- 

 koros interested us because they are such delicate eating. 

 These birds appear to be naturally of a very shy dis- 

 position, for although they are never shot at on the Caura 

 it is not easy to get within range of them. They have a 

 peculiar jerky manner of moving their wings when flying, 

 uttering at the same time the koro-koro from which they 

 derive their name. 



Four days' steady paddling brought us to Suraima, 

 another difficult place to get through when the river is 

 low. All day long the men hauled the boats up through 

 narrow rapid channels or over masses of rock. It was 

 terribly hard work, and we were all glad when late in the 

 afternoon we camped above the rapids. On the following 

 day we had our first view of Arawa, and where we stopped 

 for the night on a shelving mass of rock the mountain 

 loomed ahead of us in forbidding grandeur. Just before 

 sunset the heavy bank of clouds which had been hanging 

 over its summit cleared up, revealing the height of its 

 precipitous sides and the fantastic shapes into which the 

 plateau above had been cut. Maite caught an enormous 

 Aymara, the biggest secured during the trip. He was 

 such a monster that the men, after gorging themselves 



