DOWN AN UNKNOWN RIVER 287 



bird, a male, It was showing off before a dull-colored little 

 bird, doubtless the female; and the chief feature of the 

 display was this white spot on the back. The white 

 feathers were raised and displayed so that the spot flashed 

 like the "chrysanthemum" on a prongbuck whose curios- 

 ity has been aroused. In the gloom of the forest the bird 

 was hard to see, but the flashing of this patch of white 

 feathers revealed It at once, attracting Immediate atten- 

 tion. It was an excellent example of a coloration mark 

 which served a purely advertising purpose; apparently It 

 was part of a courtship display. The bird was about thirty 

 feet up In the branches. 



In the morning, just before leaving this camp, a tapir 

 swam across stream a little way above us; but unfortu- 

 nately we could not get a shot at It. An ample supply of 

 tapir beef would have meant much to us. We had started 

 with fifty days' rations; but this by no means meant full 

 rations, In the sense of giving every man all he wanted to 

 eat. We had two meals a day, and were on rather short 

 commons — both our mess and the camaradas' — except when 

 we got plenty of palm-tops. For our mess we had the 

 boxes chosen by Flala, each containing a day's rations for 

 six men, our number. But we made each box last a day and 

 a half, or at times two days, and In addition we gave some 

 of the food to the camaradas. It was only on the rare oc- 

 casions when we had killed some monkeys or curassows, or 

 caught some fish, that everybody had enough. We would 

 have welcomed that tapir. So far the game, fish, and 

 fruit had been too scarce to be an element of weight In 

 our food supply. In an exploring trip like ours, through a 

 difficult and utterly unknown country, especially If densely 



