CHAPTER XL 



THE LIFE OF THE ABARY SAVANNAS. 



(By C. William Beebe}. 



AT7E had made two successful expeditions into the jungle 



* or " bush" of Guiana, and now our third and last trip 

 was to be in the open savanna region in the eastern portion of 

 the Colony, near the coast. The first resident American to 

 welcome us to British Guiana was Mr. Lindley Vinton who, 

 with Mrs. Vinton, did all in their power to make our stay 

 in Georgetown a pleasant one. Their house was made our 

 home and certainly no strangers in a strange land were ever 

 made more welcome than were we. 



Mr. Vinton is a living refutation of the statement that 

 continued residence in the tropics invariably results in loss 

 of energy, for seldom, even in our own virile country, can one 

 find a man more full of vitality. At the time of our visit 

 he was interested in several large concessions, one of which 

 was a rice growing proposition on the Abary River. 



When he promised "Canje Pheasants," or Hoatzins n in 

 his back yard, and thousands of Ducks flying past every day, 

 we smiled as we remembered the Hoatzins in the depths of the 

 Venezuelan mangroves. But, exaggerated as we believed 

 his enthusiastic reports to be, we were glad indeed to accept 

 his invitation to spend a week at the bungalow on the rice 

 plantation. We ultimately found that he had actually 

 understated the conditions of bird life on the Abary! 



On April i2th, Milady and I took the funny little compart- 

 ment train for Abary Bridge, or, as our ticket read, Bella- 

 drum, which we reached at 9.30 after a two hours' slow ride. 



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