XOTl-.S ON IIOATZrNS 



1()T 



I'hdto 1)1/ P. a. IT. 



FIG. 41. NESTLING HOATZINS PROGRESSING ON ALL FOURS AND PREPARING 

 TO CLIMB OR TO DIVE FROM THE NEST. 



the widening ripples which unduhited over the muddy water 

 — the only trace of the whereabouts of the vonniJ^ bird. 



It seemed as if no one, whether ornitliolog'ist, evohition- 

 ist, poet or philosopher could have failed to be profoundly 

 impressed at the sight we had seen. Here I was in a very 

 real, a very modern boat, witli tlie honk of motor horns 

 sounding from the river road a few vards awa^• through the 

 bushes, in the shade of this tropical vegetation in the year 

 nineteen hundred and sixteen, and yet the curtain of the 

 past had been lifted, and I liad been permitted a glim])se of 

 what must have been common in tlie millions of 3'ears ago. 

 It was a tremendous tiling, a wonderful thing to liave seen 

 and it seemed to dwarf all the strange sights I had seen in 

 all other parts of the earth's wilderness. I had read of these 



