01M:N C LKAIilNCi AS I) SKC OXDGROWTH (H 



The hiislies at the ed^e of the coiiipoiiiid teemed witli 

 bird hfe all foreign to the jim<^lc' at our haek. Whenever 

 we went to the Hills we listened to the ju])ilant, rolliekin^ 

 songs of the Guiana house wrens, but these were never 

 heard at Kalacoon. This was the case for several weeks, 

 but one niorning we heard, not one, })ut several birds sing- 

 ing at once. A wave of wrens had ovei'dowed Kalacoon 

 during the night, and now in the early morning were feed- 

 ing, and singing, and climbing about the grass stems per- 

 fectly at home. We had witnessed the aiTi\aI of a new 

 species, old birds and se^'el'al full-grown young. Within 

 three days they had dispossessed some finches, nest, eggs 

 and all, and had begun nests of their own. 



The arrival of wrens at Kalacoon was an event slight 

 in itself, but which seemed to me full of significance, when 

 I realized that in such fashion birds extend their ranges over 

 the surface of the earth. It was quite different from the 

 small flock of sandpipers which appeared suddenly along 

 the creek. They were migrants, here today, oft' to the far 

 north tomorrow. But the house wrens of Guiana are per- 

 manent residents, and once they have taken possession in 

 their Berce little masterful wren fashion, they elect to remain 

 until the traces of man's labors have wholly vanished. INIany 

 years ago in this very region I have recorded ' how these 

 God-birds, as the natives call them, often cling to a deserted 

 Indian clearnig until the jungle has choked it from existence. 

 The coming of the wrens truly typified the advance of a 

 species, one step in that progress which has peopled every 

 continent with its thousands of species of birds. 



From the lofty outlook of Kalacoon compound a tre- 

 mendous sweej) of sky was visible, and it was very seldom 

 that this was wholly free from bird life. ]Most of these aerial 

 species were not peculiar to the clearing, however, but 

 hawked about over the jungle as well, and probably roosted 

 somewhere within its confines. Exceptions to this were barn 



'Our Search for a Wilderness, pp. 30T-308. 



