THE LIFE OF THE ABARY SAVANNAS. 



369 



back to his brush-wood. A day or two before we came one 

 of the birds had used a beam of the porch as a perch. 



This general movement occurred at both sunrise and sun- 

 set and was always as thorough and noisy as we found it the 

 first evening of our stay. For months, we were told, it had 

 been kept up as regularly as clockwork. 



FIG. 152. (A) FEMALE HOATZIN FLUSHED FROM HER NEST; THE MALE 

 BIRD APPROACHING. 



In the morning as the sun grew hotter the birds became 

 quiet and finally disappeared, not to be heard or seen again 

 until afternoon. They spend the heat of the day sitting on 

 their nests or perched on branches in the cooler, deeper 

 recesses of their linear jungle. 



The last view of them in the morning, as the heat became 

 intense, or late in the evening, usually revealed them squatted 



