170 TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



had broken at last; he had nearly reached the nest and he 

 was aching to put aside all this terrible responsibility, this 

 pitting of his tiny might against such fearful odds. He 

 wanted to be a helpless nestling again, to crouch on the 

 springy bed of twigs with a feather coverlet over him and 

 be stuffed at will with delectable pimpler pap. Such is the 

 normal right destiny of a hoatzin chick and the wheee-og! 

 wrung from him by the reaction of safety, seemed to voice 

 all this. 



I have more than once emphasized the extremely seden- 

 tary character of the hoatzin, which is not surprising when 

 we correlate the factors of weak flight and exceedingly lim- 

 ited aboreal environment. Twice I have seen interesting 

 episodes which were significant from this very viewpoint. 

 In the Berbice River and still more in its tributary, the 

 Canje Creek, floating islands are not uncommon. Indeed, 

 some distance up where the creek is quite narrow, these wan- 

 dering bits of vegetation occasionally extend from bank to 

 bank. At such places the river disappears wholly from view 

 and one sees only two parallel rows of bushes and trees with 

 a green, level lawn spread between. These floating masses 

 are constantly breaking up and drifting out to sea. Usually 

 they are composed of three distinct plants, a sort of floating 

 Polygonum, a Panicum locally known as Missouri grass and 

 a Pontederia. The latter is the most attractive as it bears 

 pale flowers like little hyacinths. Occasionally boughs or 

 full-sized trees are seen passing down stream with the 

 current. 



Twice I have seen hoatzins, a single bird in one instance 

 and two at another time, perched in branches which, low in 

 the grassy mass, were floating steadily down and revolving 

 as they went. In the case of the two birds I was in a par- 

 ticularly favorable place for observation and could command 

 at least a half mile of creek, and from the time they appeared 

 until the great mat swept around the farthest curve, the 

 birds did not move. If they did not fly ashore before they 



