ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



23 



cleared jungle; a second growth idea, stretching 

 along the edge of the primeval forest; and final- 

 ly the great forest with its moras, greenhearts 

 and crabwoods bound together with the tangle 

 of ever present lianas and monkey ladders, so 

 typical of the South American jungle. Wild 

 life there was in abundance, too, for him who 

 could see it. 



Never will I forget my first experience in 

 that shadow-flecked jungle with Beebe as my 

 guide, as he pointed upward through the patches 

 of sunlight to a huge mora and said, "Howlers !" 

 I never had expected to see a troop of real mon- 

 keys in full swing in their native haunts, nor 

 would I have done so on this occasion had I not 

 been with a man, who of all men it has been my 

 privilege to know, has the true naturalist's in- 

 stincts interwoven with the almost second nature 

 of the woodsman. The jungle is a closed book 

 to the average visitor simply because he does not 

 know how to unlock its secrets. For one must 

 have the stealthiness of the Indian and the per- 

 severance of the trained naturalist to see the 

 sights that Beebe describes so accurately. 



It is needless to say that the splendidly paint- 

 ed and yet scientifically accurate description of 

 the experimental work and field observations 

 bring back vivid pictures of those days of won- 

 der and evenings of stimulation. The mornings 

 were spent in the field, each worker going alone 

 to his point of vantage, where he might perhaps 

 sit for hours watching the play of life which 

 took place about him. Another member of the 

 party might travel alone far away from the 

 trails, searching for some new type of bird or 

 insect life that abounded for him who knew the 

 way to find it. And. after finding the habitat, 

 the study of the habits of the form was made 

 the objective, for the work of the expedition was 

 dynamic, and not static. Beebe. the trained 

 ecologist and laboratory worker, the keen orni- 

 thologist and enthusiastic naturalist, planned a 

 piece of work which was both practical and 

 scientific. An area of jungle which was little 

 larger than Central Park, closely accessible to 

 Kalacoon, was chosen for a field of studv. Here 

 Beebe. with the pre-knowledge of the man who 

 has mapped out his work and who knows his 

 territory, apportioned among his men the pecu- 

 liar problems best fitted to their training and 

 interest. Hartley worked on general ornitho- 

 logical questions, and some connected with the 

 development of birds. Howes took the life his- 

 tory of some of the various insets predominant 

 there — particularly wasps. Beebe. primarily 

 interested in ornithological work, yet catholic 



enough in his interests to seize on many of the 

 other phenomena, has written on the general 

 fauna] conditions, as well as some of the special 

 chapters such as those on the hoatzins and 

 toucans. 



While it is not the purpose of this review to 

 go into detailed account of this volume, yet time 

 must be taken to call attention to a few of the 

 more noteworthy chapters. Beebe's account of 

 the general fauna and flora, as he saw them, and 

 in particular his delightful chapters on the jun- 

 gle and its life, the bird life of the Bartica Dis- 

 trict, and methods of research (Chapters 6, 7 

 and 10) are of peculiar interest. Some most 

 interesting scientific theories are hinted at or 

 are worked out in skeleton in these chapters. A 

 comparison of the sequence of seasons in the 

 tropics and in the temperate zone is most sug- 

 gestive. His description of the horizontal strata 

 of the jungle and the scientific spirit in which 

 he acknowledges how little we know of that top- 

 most stratum — that of the high treetops — is 

 most enlightening. Those of us who know our 

 Waterton recognize what strides Beebe and his 

 companions have made in their diagnosis of 

 jungle conditions. In his chapter on the bird 

 life of the Bartica District, he has shown that 

 in their short stay he and his party actually 

 have made a greater contribution in the naming 

 of species than did the naturalist Whitely some 

 years before with his much greater opportuni- 

 ties. His notes and methods of work are en- 

 lightening, and as an eye witness, were to me 

 most interesting. Frequently I have awakened 

 on my cot in the long laboratory room at Kala- 

 coon — where we all slept — to see Beebe at the 

 window, with the first light of dawn, carefully 

 observing the flights of birds, listening to their 

 calls and songs and making notes on such other 

 habits as he could observe from the laboratory 

 windows. As he says, ten years work might be 

 done without stirring from the laboratory at 

 Kalacoon. But this statement is true only to the 

 man with exceptional interest and exceptional 

 ability. 



Chapter ten on "Methods of Research" de- 

 serves more than passing comment. For in no 

 place in the book more than in this chapter does 

 the scientific spirit of the research student blend 

 with that of the naturalist. As Beebe says, he 

 was concerned not with the haphazard collect- 

 ing of the old-type naturalist, but with "the 

 problems concerned in discovering, watching 

 and finally, if necessary, securing dead or alive. 

 certain definite species or groups of organisms. 

 And this was a very difficult matter and of all 

 places difficult here in the tropics, where a sin- 



