CHAPTER XI 



FURTHER NOTES OF THE LIFE HISTORY OF HOATZINS 



The hoatzin is a bird of such unusual interest that when- 

 ever my travels take me near its haunts I spend every possible 

 moment in observing it. So thoroughly does it seem to em- 

 body the spirit of past bird life on the earth that I have an 

 idee fixe that if only I can watch it long enough, with suffi- 

 cient keenness and controlled imagination, some significant 

 hint of avian evolution is certain, sooner or later, to be re- 

 vealed. More than anything of which I know, this strange 

 bird is to me an inspiration to keep hoping and working for 

 more light on this fascinating phase of terrestrial evolution. 



I have already published in an early number of Zoo- 

 logica my observations on the hoatzins of Venezuela and of 

 Abary Creek, British Guiana. 1 



During the present year I found it advisable to estab- 

 lish our Tropical Research Station in the interior of the 

 country, far from the haunts of the hoatzins. In spite of 

 my utmost efforts I could get nothing but conflicting state- 

 ments as to the nesting season. At last I decided to visit 

 Berbice in the hope of accomplishing three distinct things; 

 to photograph young hoatzins in the acts of climbing, walk- 

 ing and swimming, to obtain material for a group of these 

 birds for the American Museum and to attempt to bring 

 living specimens north to the New York Zoological Park. 



On May 25, with Hartley and Howes, my two assist- 

 ants, I took train at Georgetown and in four hours traversed 

 the coastal front of British Guiana, ending our journey at 

 New Amsterdam on the Berbice River. Here, with head- 

 quarters at the Government Colony House we remained for 

 three days, making trips to various sugar plantations and up 



1 7Moloyica, I, No. 2, 1909, "Ecology of the Hoatzin," pp. 45-66. 



