368 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



and begin to tear off pieces of the young tender shoots of the 

 mucka-mucka. With much noise and flapping of wings, 

 several made their way to a single bare branch which pro- 

 jected out over the cleared marsh. The first bird would 

 make many false starts, crouching and then losing heart, 

 but the next on the branch, getting impatient, at last nudged 

 him a bit, and at last he launched out into the air. With 

 rather slow wing beats, but working apparently with all his 

 power, he spanned the wide extent of cleared brush, then the 

 ten feet of water, then fifteen yards more of stumps, and with 

 a final effort he clutched a branch - and his goal was reached ! 

 After several minutes of breathlessness he continued on his 

 way out of sight into the depth of the brush. The second 

 Hoatzin would then essay the feat, but fail ignominiously and 

 fall midway, coming down all of a heap among the stumps. 

 Here a rest was taken, and for five or ten minutes the bird 

 would feed quietly. Then a second flight carried it back to 

 the starting point or to the end of the open space. 



Sometimes when the birds alighted and clutched a twig, 

 they would be so exhausted that they toppled over and hung 

 upside down for a moment. 



Watching the Hoatzins carefully with stereos for several 

 evenings in succession we came to know and distinguish 

 individual birds. Two, one of which had a broken feather in 

 the right wing, and the other a two-inch short central tail 

 feather, were excellent flyers and, taking their leaping start 

 from the high branch, never failed to make their goal, going 

 the whole distance and alighting easily. All of the others 

 had to rest and one which was moulting a feather in each 

 wing could achieve only about ten yards. This one fell one 

 evening into the water at the second relay flight, and half 

 flopped, half swam ashore. 



One evening a Hoatzin flew toward us and alighted near 

 some hens on the ground, but took wing almost instantly 



