MYKIADS OF AQUATIC BIPwDS. IQI 



For supper we obtained a fine iclithyological specimen from 

 the river, and invited the sole occupant of the hut to share 

 with us, which act we had ample occasion to seriously re- 

 gret. That, like ourselves, he had. eaten little or nothing 

 since the day previous was more than probable, although 

 a banana-grove stood at his door, loaded with fruit, and a 

 stream filled with fish flowed by his hut. His mud hovel, 

 where, in his hammock, he spent the greater part of his 

 existence, was a den of filth and darkness. At intervals, 

 when the stings of sancudos were no longer endurable, he 

 would gather an armful of vreeds and sticks with which to 

 build a smudge for expelling the insects from his hut, 

 which being secured, he would remove the heap of burning 

 rubbish just outside the entrance, and place a stifl" ox-hide 

 against the only aperture to render the exclusion of the 

 pest doubly efiectual, and then settle himself back into his 

 hammock for another siesta. 



After another wretched night among the sancudos of 

 Fayara, we were joined by our bongos and gladly pushed 

 on our journey. The banks again gradually lowering, we 

 once more found entrance upon the submerged land. In 

 some places the waters were collected into channels of 

 great depth, in others they spread out over the plain, re- 

 peating again the scenes of the Pao. The air was literally 

 filled with dense flocks of cranes, herons, flamingoes, 

 spoonbills, and other aquatic birds, while thousands more 

 whitened the half-submerged plain. Where the banks 

 were visible they were lined with caimans, alongside which 

 stalked with martial air great soldados* while toninas, 

 fresh-water porpoises, sported in the water, spouting jets 

 of water, like the larger cetaceans of the ocean, and, fre- 

 quently rising near the boat, would salute us with a start- 



* The soldado, or soldier-bird, is a species of heron ; one we secured 

 measured eight feet and seven inches between the tips of its wings, and 

 stood about five feet in heijrht. 



