THE RIVER OF DOUBT 271 



mit, accompanied by Joao, went three or four miles down 

 the river, looking for the body of Simplicio and for the 

 sunk canoe. He found neither. But he found a box of 

 provisions and a paddle, and salvaged both by swimming 

 into midstream after them. He also found that a couple of 

 kilometres below there was another stretch of rapids, and 

 following them on the left-hand bank to the foot he found 

 that they were worse than the ones we had just passed, 

 and impassable for canoes on this left-hand side. 



We camped at the foot of the rapids we had just passed. 

 There were many small birds here, but it was extremely 

 difficult to see or shoot them in the lofty tree tops, and to 

 find them in the tangle beneath if they were shot. How- 

 ever, Cherrie got four species new to the collection. One 

 was a tiny hummer, one of the species known as wood- 

 stars, with dainty but not brilliant plumage; its kind is 

 never found except in the deep, dark woods, not coming 

 out into the sunshine. Its crop was filled with ants; when 

 shot it was feeding at a cluster of long red flowers. He also 

 got a very handsome trogon and an exquisite little tanager, 

 as brilliant as a cluster of jewels; its throat was lilac, its 

 breast turquoise, its crown and forehead topaz, while above 

 it was glossy purple-black, the lower part of the back ruby- 

 red. This tanager was a female; I can hardly imagine that 

 the male is more brilliantly colored. The fourth bird was 

 a queer hawk of the genus ibycter, black, with a white belly, 

 naked red cheeks and throat and red legs and feet. Its 

 crop was filled with the seeds of fruits and a few insect 

 remains; an extraordinary diet for a hawk. 



The morning of the i6th was dark and gloomy. 

 Through sheets of blinding rain we left our camp of mis- 



