72 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



wailing, passed immediately overhead. Jacanas frequented 

 the ponds near by; the peons, with a familiarity which to us 

 seems sacrilegious, but to them was entirely inoffensive and 

 matter of course, called them "the Jesus Christ birds," be- 

 cause they walked on the water. There was a wealth of 

 strange bird life in the neighborhood. There were large pa- 

 pyrus-marshes, the papyrus not being a fifth, perhaps not a 

 tenth, as high as in Africa. In these swamps were many 

 blackbirds. Some uttered notes that reminded me of our 

 own redwings. Others, with crimson heads and necks and 

 thighs, fairly blazed; often a dozen sat together on a sway- 

 ing papyrus-stem which their weight bent over. There 

 were all kinds of extraordinary bird's-nests in the trees. 

 There is still need for the work of the collector in South 

 America. But I believe that already, so far as birds are 

 concerned, there is infinitely more need for the work of 

 the careful observer, who to the power of appreciation and 

 observation adds the power of vivid, truthful, and inter- 

 esting narration which means, as scientists no less than 

 historians should note, that training in the writing of 

 good English is indispensable to any learned man who 

 expects to make his learning count for what it ought to 

 count in the effect on his fellow men. The outdoor natu- 

 ralist, the faunal naturalist, who devotes himself primarily 

 to a study of the habits and of the life-histories of birds, 

 beasts, fish, and reptiles, and who can portray truthfully 

 and vividly what he has seen, could do work of more use- 

 fulness than any mere collector, in this upper Paraguay 

 country. The work of the collector is indispensable; but 

 it is only a small part of the work that ought to be done; 

 and after collecting has reached a certain point the work 



