HEADWATERS OF THE PARAGUAY 105 



birds which under man's persecution are so apt to become 

 scarce and shy. The huge jabiru storks, stalking through 

 the water with stately dignity, sometimes refused to fly 

 until we were only a hundred yards off; one of them flew 

 over our heads at a distance of thirty or forty yards. The 

 screamers, crying curu-curu^ and the ibises, wailing dole- 

 fully, came even closer. The wonderful hyacinth macaws, 

 in twos and threes, accompanied us at times for several 

 hundred yards, hovering over our heads and uttering their 

 rasping screams. In one wood we came on the black 

 howler monkey. The place smelt almost like a menagerie. 

 Not watching with sufficient care I brushed against a sap- 

 ling on which the venomous fire-ants swarmed. They 

 burnt the skin like red-hot cinders, and left little sores. 

 More than once in the drier parts of the marsh we met 

 small caymans making their way from one pool to another. 

 My horse stepped over one before I saw it. The dead car- 

 casses of others showed that on their wanderings they had 

 encountered jaguars or human foes. 



We had been out about three hours when one of the 

 dogs gave tongue in a large belt of woodland and jungle 

 to the left of our line of march through the marsh. The 

 other dogs ran to the sound, and after a while the long 

 barking told that the thing, whatever it was, was at bay 

 or else in some refuge. We made our way toward the place 

 on foot. The dogs were baying excitedly at the mouth of 

 a huge hollow log, and very short examination showed us 

 that there were two peccaries within, doubtless a boar and 

 sow. However, just at this moment the peccaries bolted 

 from an unsuspected opening at the other end of the log, 

 dove into the tangle, and instantly disappeared with the 



