J&irli-ltire 



A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Organ of '•'he Audubon Societies 



Vol. XI 



November— December, 1909 



No. 6 



A Day with the Birds on a Guiana Savanna 



By C. WILLIAM BEEBE 



With Photographs by the Author 



EW lines of communication have made it 

 possible to reach wild portions of South 

 America in a comparatively short space 

 of time. If we sail from New York City on one of 

 the comfortable Royal Dutch Mail Steamers, we 

 will reach Georgetown, the capital of British 

 Guiana, early on the morning of the ninth day. 

 Let us see what it is possible to observe in the way 

 of bird life on this same day. Taking the trolley 

 to the railroad depot, we can easily catch the 7.30 

 train, which takes us southward along the coast, 

 and will enable us to reach the little station of 

 Belladrum, two hours later. The land all along 

 the coast is a fiat, marshy savanna, dotted here 

 and there with coolie huts and tiny rice fields. 

 Throughout the whole distance, quantities of 

 birds are constantly in sight; small Seed-eaters^ and Scarlet-breasted Blackbirds,^ 

 .associating in flocks of hundreds with the equally brilliant Little Yellow-headed 

 Blackbirds.^ When a flock of eight hundred or a thousand of these two latter 

 species rise up en masse from the dull green reeds, the flash of color, scarlet, yellow 

 and black, is most beautiful. 



At the Abary river, we enter a small launch and start up stream for a twenty- 

 mile journey inland. Blackbirds are as abundant as ever, and on all sides, as far 

 as the eye can see, scattered over the marshes are American Egrets,'* each stand- 

 ing apart from its fellows and fishing in the numerous small creeks. Here and 

 there among them are Wood Ibises,^ and at last we discover the bird for which 

 we have been searching — the Great Jabiru,^ or 'Negrocop, ' as the natives call 

 it. These splendid storks tower high above the herons, and with their jet-black 



KISKADEE FLYCATCHER 



^Sporophila sp 

 'Leistes guianeiisis 



^ Agelaiiis icieroce phaliis 

 * Herodias cgretia 



^ Mycleria americana 

 ^Jabiru mvcteria 



