HUNTING ALONG THE UPPER PARAGUAY 217 



giant ant-eater is at least partially diurnal. The stomachs 

 of the specimens shot by Colonel Roosevelt and his son 

 Kermit contained ants and termites, a quantity of earth, 

 and bits of dry and green leaves. The colonel expressed 

 the opinion that the earth and leaves had been picked up 

 with the ants. The walls of the stomach are thick and 

 muscular, like the gizzard of a fowl. In captivity they 

 thrive on finely chopped meat. 



We spent the night aboard the Nyoac, which had been 

 made fast at a landing where there was only a dilapidated 

 thatched-roof shed. Early the next morning horses were 

 brought up and saddled and we started on a five hours' 

 ride to the ranch-house that was to serve as camp. 



Before us stretched vast marshes, dotted here and there 

 with little islands of pastureland and groves of trees or 

 thorny bushes. It was typical pantanal country. Parrots, 

 parrakeets, and macaws flashed by with raucous shrieks, 

 and kis-ka-dee flycatchers calmly surveyed the cavalcade 

 from the uppermost branches. Sometimes we flushed a 

 small flock of beautiful Brazilian teals, and in the distance 

 we saw ibises and jabiru storks standing in the long grass, 

 like foam-flecks on a sea of green. For the greater part of 

 the distance we rode through water knee-deep to the horses, 

 but in spots the marshes were drying. In the little pools 

 that were all that remained of what had formerly, perhaps, 

 been an immense lagoon, myriads of imprisoned fish wrig- 

 gled and churned the water into thin mud. They formed 

 an almost solid mass, and at the borders numbers were 

 constantly leaping out; the ground was strewn with the 

 dead and dying by thousands, and of many species. The 

 stench from the decomposing fish was almost overpowering. 

 Numerous animals coming out of their hiding-places at 

 night to gorge on the bountiful repast left their foot-prints 

 in the soft mud. Apparently opossums, coatis, tiger-cats, 

 and even jaguars haunted these places. In the daytime 

 the countless numbers of water-birds exacted their share of 

 the spoil. 



