Glimpses of South American Ornithology. 325


head, a concealed yellow crest and with two greatly elongated tail

feathers, the well-known Scissor Tail Tyrant ; a third might be

added to the picture ; a snowy white bird with black tips to the

wings (Taenioptera irupero). A month later he might be travelling

by rail through the same country ; he would certainly see from the

railway carriage small flocks of Roseate Spoonbill and Wood Ibis,

collected here and there by the occasional lagunas, on their way to

spread themselves over the Province and the Argentine Pampas.


Such pictures of bird-life are not easily forgotten, so that

they group themselves in the memory to form a blur of coloured

recollection. The traveller may never visit that country again, but

assuredly in the forthcoming book (“ Six Months Impressions of a

Continent ” or some such name) he will casually refer in glowing

terms to the brilliant nature of the Argentine bird-life.


Still undoubtedly the haphazard traveller does occasionally

have wonderful ornithological sights thrust upon him, unsought for.

And it is my intention to relate a few of these from South America.


Everyone must have his own particular idea of what the

general effect of Tropical bird-life should be. The writer has only

once seen his for a few hours in the Delta of the Orinoco. There is no

great river here, but countless small mangrove and palm-fringed

channels with sluggish currents. The steamer takes the Macareo,

the principal and least tortuous of these, to port of Spain. Occa¬

sional pairs of both Blue and Yellow and Red and Blue Macaws flew

over ; not “ soaring like huge Hawks,” as one writer puts it, but

moving in quick-flapping trailing flight as if they knew that

particular palm, where most fruit grew and meant to arrive as

quickly as they could. “ Soaring Hawks ” were however represented

by perhaps the most graceful of all the family, the Swallow-tail Kite.

An occasional Cocoi Heron was there ; and the small Blue Heron

(Butorides striata) in rather greater numbers would rise and fly

croaking across the water. Some exigency of river navigation takes

the steamer rather closely and suddenly round a bend, and from

almost under the bows rises a living streak of fire, as a flock of a

dozen or so of Crimson Ibis flap quickly away. The fauna of that

region has been graphically described by Mr. Beebe in “ Our Search

for a Wilderness.”



