J. Delacour — Notes of a Bird-lover in Tropical America 149


Great and Snowy Egrets, Cocci' Herons, Night Herons, Bitterns of all

kinds ; now and then a fine black Eagle, with yellow bill and white

tail, the Urubitinga, can be seen.


Over our heads hundreds of large birds are soaring : huge American

Adjutants and Tantalus are especially numerous ; Maguari Storks,

Aramus, all sorts of Herons, Scarlet and Glossy Ibises, Roseate Spoon¬

bills ; other birds soon join them—-Terns, Cormorants, and Snake

Birds ( Anhinga ). Ospreys are fishing around the launch, and it is

a wonderful sight; Macaws and Parrots often cross the river, flying in

pairs ; the Apure, near San Fernando, is over 2 miles wide. This

extraordinary display of tropical life is met with everywhere along

these rivers.


San Fernando is a miserable and unhealthy little town, frightfully

hot. I was there the guest of the Lancashire General Investment

Trust, whose officers were most kind to me and helped in every way.

The comfortable bungalow faces the Apure ; from the windows we

could see enormous Crocodiles and freshwater Dolphins in the water,

and on the sand bank, half a mile distant, colonies of Terns, mainly

of the curious Rhynchops, made an awful and objectionable noise day

and night.


In the Apure country the scenery is poor and monotonous. Every¬

where flat grassland and rickety trees, swamps, lagoons. Near the

water small Caimans and colossal Anacondas swarm. There, too,

small Ardeidae ( Ardetta , Butorides, Florida, % Tigrisoma , Nyctanassa,

Nycticorax, etc.) are abundant, as well as Purple Gallinules and Jacanas.

A few Sun-bitterns and flocks of Scarlet Ibises and Roseate Spoonbills

are always in sight. Another curious inhabitant of the marshes is the

Rostrliamus sociabilis ; these dark birds of prey have a curved and

weak bill especially adapted to their peculiar life, as they only feed on

shell-fish and mussels ; they live in flocks, and other birds don’t take

any notice of them.


Parrots, Macaws, and Parrakeets are numerous everywhere, and

also small birds—Tanagers, Saffron Finches, Cardinals, Ground Doves,

etc. But the very particular bird of the country is the Tloatzin. This

astonishing creature, which has been mistaken for a gallinaceous bird,

is to my mind a relation of the African Touracos rather than anything



