148 TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



gle undergrowth with its erect halo of snow-white plumes 

 could always be counted on in the van of an army of driver 

 ants. But to locate the ants themselves in the jungle was 

 easy only after we had learned to listen for the mingled 

 chirps of the smaller, more voluble species of antbirds which 

 had adopted this easy method of securing a supply of insect 

 food. 



We came with a supply of small mouse traps and larger 

 steel ones, and, after we arrived, made box and figure-of-four 

 traps. But we had overlooked the fact that this was a world 

 of hungry ants, and for a time our collector had poor suc- 

 cess. For the most easily trapped mammal would hesitate 

 at a delectable bait, when it was covered three deep with 

 stinging ants. Then elaborate ant-proof contrivances were 

 evolved, guarded by moats and slightly raised platforms and 

 zones of sticky sap. But this brought the bait to the notice 

 of stray vultures and after that we were kept busy releasing 

 the yellow-headed scavengers which came down from the 

 heart of the sky to the new-found manna. A study of ant 

 diet revealed certain items for which they did not care, and 

 these, chiefly vegetable, were successful, being inedible alike 

 to ant and vulture. 



Mice and rats of the jungle were exceedingly difficult 

 to capture. Now and then while out on other work we 

 caught glimpses of them, but they utterly refused to enter 

 the most open trap, set with the most enticing bait. And I 

 was disappointed in the showing of frogs and toads which 

 I wanted to ship north alive. We could hear them at night, 

 and their tadpoles were abundant in the creeks and pools, 

 but a long evening's work with flash and net often yielded 

 a bare half dozen, all perhaps of the same species. 



As was more than once the case, my ultimate success in 

 these directions was due wholly to chance, and not at all to 

 any careful planning or invention. I had a deep hole dug 

 at the southern edge of Kalacoon compound, intending to 



