64 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



this South American insect has a voice, or rather utters a 

 sound which, so far as it resembles any other animal sound, 

 at the beginning remotely suggests batrachian affinities. 

 The locomotive-whistle part of the utterance, however, re- 

 sembles nothing so much as a small steam siren; when 

 first heard it seems impossible that it can be produced by 

 an insect. 



On December 17 Colonel Rondon and several members 

 of our party started on a shallow river steamer for the 

 ranch of Senhor de Barros, "Las Palmeiras," on the Rio 

 Taquary. We went down the Paraguay for a few miles, 

 and then up the Taquary. It was a beautiful trip. The 

 shallow river — we were aground several times — wound 

 through a vast, marshy plain, with occasional spots of 

 higher land on which trees grew. There were many 

 water-birds. Darters swarmed. But the conspicuous and 

 attractive bird was the stately jabiru stork. Flocks of 

 these storks whitened the marshes and lined the river 

 banks. They were not shy, for such big birds; before 

 flying they had to run a few paces and then launch them- 

 selves on the air. Once, at noon, a couple soared round 

 overhead in wide rings, rising higher and higher. On an- 

 other occasion, late in the day, a flock passed by, gleam- 

 ing white with black points in the long afternoon lights, and 

 with them were spoonbills, showing rosy amid their snowy 

 companions. Caymans, always called jacares, swarmed; 

 and we killed scores of the noxious creatures. They were 

 singularly indifferent to our approach and to the sound of 

 the shots. Sometimes they ran into the water erect on 

 their legs, looking like miniatures of the monsters of the 

 prime. One showed by its behavior how little an ordinary 



