330 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



around beyond the first two valleys and then turning and 

 describing a second curve intersecting the first. Two of the 

 Jungle Wrens or Quadrille Birds 125 sang their incomparable 

 strains, each with a theme of its own. The first had two 

 phrases which it uttered alternately, thus; 



1 



-- r n 



There is absolutely no other bird song with which to com- 

 pare it. The timbre, when heard at a distance, is that of the 

 Wood Thrush quality sweet, liquid and altogether ethereal. 

 But the distinctness of the notes and their remarkably intri- 

 cate trios and gradations are wholly unique. Three or four 

 large species of Antbirds ran rapidly here and there, hold- 

 ing their short tails erect and jerking them frequently, thus 

 presenting a decidedly ralline appearance. 



We saw several Little Tinamous 3 in the course of the 

 day, one of which I shot. When the cook cleaned it in the 

 evening, he found an egg about to be laid. Several days 

 later a short distance from the clearing, a bird of this species 

 was flushed from a slight hollow between the buttresses of a 

 mora. The following day when the bird flew from the same 

 spot it was found that an egg had been deposited. It was of 

 a burnished purple color and was 35X45 mm. in size. Al- 

 though we knew that the egg had been laid less than twenty- 

 four hours before, yet it contained an embryo corresponding 

 to a four day chick. This fact, in the case of these generalized 

 birds, may have some significance when we remember the 

 advanced state of embryonic development characterizing the 

 newly laid eggs of many reptiles. 



After an hour or more of the most careful stalking in a 

 low swampy valley, we heard the unmistakable thunderings 

 of Trumpeters 25 or Warracabras, and my blood leaped in 

 response. Long before I could hear them, Francis had 



