VI 

 HOATZINS AT HOME 



THE flight of the hoatzin resembles that of an 

 over-fed hen. The hoatzin's voice is no more 

 melodious than the cry of a peacock, and less 

 sonorous than an alligator's roar. The bird's 

 grace is batrachian rather than avian, while the 

 odor of its body resembles that of no bird un- 

 touched by dissolution. Still, zoologically con- 

 sidered, the hoatzin is probably the most remark- 

 able and interesting bird living on the earth 

 today. 



It has successfully defied time and space. 

 For it, the dial of the ages has moved more 

 slowly than for the rest of organic life, and 

 although living and breathing with us today, 

 yet its world is an affair of two dimensions a 

 line of thorny saplings threaded along the 

 muddy banks of a few tropical waters. 



A bird in a cage cannot escape, and may be 

 found month after month wherever the cage is 



123 



