132 JUNGLE PEACE 



a half -inch in length. No age would have 

 showed to better advantage every movement of 

 wings or head. 



When a mother hoatzin took reluctant flight 

 from her nest, the young bird at once stood up- 

 right and looked curiously in every direction. 

 No slacker he, crouching flat or awaiting his 

 mother's directing cries. From the moment he 

 was left alone he began to depend upon the 

 warnings and signs which his great beady eyes 

 and skinny ears conveyed to him. Hawks and 

 vultures had swept low over his nest and mother 

 unheeded. Coolies in their boats had paddled 

 underneath with no more than a glance upward. 

 Throughout his week of life, as through his 

 parents' and their parents' parents' lives, no 

 danger had disturbed their peaceful existence. 

 Only for a sudden windstorm such as that 

 which the week before had upset nests and 

 blown out eggs, it might be said that for the 

 little hoatzin chicks life held nothing but siestas 

 and munchings of pimpler leaves. 



But one little hoatzin, if he had any thoughts 

 such as these, failed to count on the invariable 

 exceptions to every rule, for this day the totally 

 unexpected happened. Fate, in the shape of 



