56 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 



and the one which eluded us was the big sulphur- 

 breasted fellow. I remembered so vividly the 

 painstaking care with which, w^eek after week, we 

 and our Indians tramped the jungle for miles, — 

 through swamps and over rolling hills, — at last 

 having to admit failure; and now I sat and 

 watched thirty, forty, fifty of the splendid birds 

 whirr past. As the last of the fifty-four flew on 

 to their feast of berries, I recalled with difficulty 

 my faded visions of northern birds. 



And so ended, as in the great finale of a pyro- 

 technic display, my tv/o hours on a hillside clear- 

 ing. I can neither enliven it w^th a startling es- 

 cape, nor add a thrill of danger, without using as 

 many "ifs" as would be needed to make a Jersey 

 meadow untenable. For example, if I had fallen 

 over backwards and been powerless to rise or 

 move, I should have been killed within half an 

 hour, for a stray column of army ants was pass- 

 ing within a yard of me, and death would await 

 any helpless being falling across their path. But 

 by searching out a copperhead and imitating 

 Cleopatra, or with patience and persistence de- 

 vouring every toadstool, the same result could 

 be achieved in our home-town orchard. When on 

 the march, the army ants are as innocuous at two 



