A WILDERNESS LABORATORY 159 



a kaleidoscopic network of swifts — from great, 

 collared fellows to the tiny dwellers in palms — 

 with swallows, martins, and, if late enough, 

 nighthawks. Fork-tailed flycatchers swept by 

 scores round the vortex of insects, while a flut- 

 tering host of kiskadees, tanagers, anis, thrushes, 

 and wrens gleaned as best they could from 

 grass-top or branch. In ten minutes the whole 

 flight had vanished. Any queen termite which 

 ran that gauntlet safely, deserved to found her 

 colony without further molestation. 



Although I might have stalked and watched 

 the white campaneros for a week past, yet when- 

 ever there came to ear the anvil-like kong! kang! 

 or the ringing, sonorous kaaaaaaaaaaang! of a 

 bell-bird three miles away, I always stopped 

 work and became one great ear to this jungle 

 angelus. 



One could watch the changing seasons of the 

 great tropical jungle from the same wonder 

 windows of Kalacoon. A dull rose suffused the 

 tree-tops, deepening day by day, and finally the 

 green appeared, picked out everywhere by a 

 myriad blossoms — magenta, mauve, maroon, car- 

 mine, rose, salmon-pink. Yet the glass showed 

 only top-gallant foliage of wilted, parti-colored 



