HOATZINS AT HOME 133 



enthusiastic scientists, descended upon him. He 

 was not for a second nonplussed. If we had 

 concentrated upon him a thousand strong, by 

 boats and by land, he would have fought the 

 good fight for freedom and life as calmly as he 

 waged it against us. And we found him no 

 mean antagonist, and far from reptilian in his 

 ability to meet new and unforeseen conditions. 



His mother, who a moment before had been 

 packing his capacious little crop with predi- 

 gested pimpler leaves, had now flown off to an 

 adjoining group of mangroves, where she and 

 his father croaked to him hoarse encouragement. 

 His flight feathers hardly reached beyond his 

 finger-tips, and his body was covered with a 

 sparse coating of sooty black down. So there 

 could be no resort to flight. He must defend 

 himself, bound to earth like his assailants. 



Hardly had his mother left when his comical 

 head, with thick, blunt beak and large intelli- 

 gent eyes, appeared over the rim of the nest. 

 His alert expression was increased by the sus- 

 picion of a crest on his crown where the down 

 was slightly longer. Higher and higher rose his 

 head, supported on a neck of extraordinary 

 length and thinness. No more than this was 



