A JAGUAR-HUNT ON THE TAQUARY 91 



A naturalist could with the utmost advantage spend six 

 months on such a ranch as that we visited. He would have 

 to do some collecting, but only a little. Exhaustive ob- 

 servation in the field is what is now most needed. Most 

 of this wonderful and harmless bird life should be pro- 

 tected by law; and the mammals should receive reasonable 

 protection. The books now most needed are those dealing 

 with the life-histories of wild creatures. 



Near the ranch-house, walking familiarly among the 

 cattle, we saw the big, deep-billed Ani blackbirds. They 

 feed on the insects disturbed by the hoofs of the cattle, 

 and often cling to them and pick off the ticks. It was 

 the end of the nesting season, and we did not find their 

 curious communal nests, in which half a dozen females lay 

 their eggs indiscriminately. The common ibises in the 

 ponds near by — which usually went in pairs, instead of in 

 flocks like the wood-ibis — were very tame, and so were 

 the night herons and all the small herons. In flying, the 

 ibises and storks stretch the neck straight in front of them. 

 The jabiru — a splendid bird on the wing — also stretches 

 his neck out in front, but there appears to be a slight 

 downward curve at the base of the neck, which may be 

 due merely to the craw. The big slender herons, on the 

 contrary, bend the long neck back in a beautiful curve, 

 so that the head is nearly between the shoulders. One 

 day I saw what I at first thought was a small yellow-bellied 

 kingfisher hovering over a pond, and finally plunging down 

 to the surface of the water after a school of tiny young 

 fish; but it proved to be a bien-te-vi king-bird. Curved- 

 bill wood-hewers, birds the size and somewhat the coloration 

 of veeries, but with long, slender sickle-bills, were common 



