202 TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



Photo by P. G. H. 

 FIG. 57. SIDE VIEW OF SEVENTEEN -DAY -OLD ARACARI 



We placed them in an artificial cavity, fed them with a 

 varied assortment of fruits and berries, and in due time 

 chloroformed them for preservation and future study. Their 

 fatal fault was youth; their doom immaturity. Had they 

 been full-grown they would not have been disturbed, or 

 would have been brought to live out their long span of years 

 at the Zoological Park. But youth is evanescent and the 

 youth of these birds can teach much of the genealogical tree 

 up which their more or less toucanesque ancestors hopped 

 their way through the checkered eons of evolution. But that 

 is a story for another volume. 



In the course of many years of exploration in various 

 parts of the tropics I have cut down scores of trees to get 

 at nests containing eggs or young birds, and it is a source 

 of never-ending astonishment how seldom these are injured. 



