NOTES ON HOATZINS 159 



pleasantly divided into douhk- lines of loeust-like leaflets. 

 The plants were in I'lill flower, dainty, upri^lit panieles of 

 wisteria-like pea blossoms, pale violet and white with tinj'^ 

 bnds of magenta. A faint, snhdued ])errnnie drifted from 

 them through the tangle of branches. The fruit was ripen- 

 ing on many plants, elnsters of green, semi-eirenlar, flat, 

 kidney pods. The low branches stretched gracefnlly water- 

 wards in long sweeping cnrves, and on these at a fork or at 

 the crossing of two distinct branches, the hoatzins ])laced 

 their nests, and with the soft-tissned leaflets they packed their 

 capacious crops and fed their young. 



Besides these two plants, which alone maj' be considered 

 as forming the principal environment, two blooms were 

 conspicuous at this season; a deep calyxed, round blossom 

 of rich yellow — an hibiscus, which the Indians called niakoe, 

 and from the bark of which they made most excellent rope. 

 The other flower was a vine which crept commonly up over 

 the pimpler trees, regardless of water and thorns, and hung 

 out twin blossoms in profusion, pink or pinkish- white, trum- 

 pet shaped with flaring lips — an Kchites of sorts. 



The mid-day life about this haunt of hoatzins was full 

 of interest. Tody-flycatchers of two species, yellow-breasted 

 and streaked were the commonest birds, and their little 

 homes, like bits of tide-hung drift, swayed from the tips of 

 the pimpler branches. They dashed to and fro, regardless of 

 the heat, and w^henever we stopped, came within a foot or 

 two, curiously watching om* every motion. Kiskadees hopped 

 along the water's edge in the shade, snatching insects and 

 occasionally splashing into the water after small fish. Awk- 

 ward Guiana green herons, not long out of the nest, crept 

 like shadow silhouettes of birds close to the dark water. High 

 overhead, like flecks of jet against the blue sky, the vultures 

 soared. 



Green dragonflies whirled here and there, and great 

 blue-black bees fumbled in and out of the hibiscus, yellowed 



