ITINERARY. Xh 



parched savnnnahs in the flistricts around, in diy seasons, where they 

 may find an abundance of food eitlier in the small animals trying to 

 escape the tl tmes, or in those that have been burnt or have been 

 suffocated with the smoke. It may be mentioned as a peculiar thing 

 that many of these and of other hawks, which ordinarily are regarded 

 as carnivorous, carrion-feeding, or insectivorous, are often found w ith 

 practically little else of food contents than fruit, seeds, or young leaves 

 niid leaf-buds, which, while it may sometimes be due to a scarcity of 

 their ordinary diet, is certainly in othei's a condition of ordinary habit. 



Among some of the further villages, inliabited by the peoples calling 

 themselves ]\ronikos, Sokorikos, Eiikarikos,and Kwating people, there are 

 to be seen, .suspended from tlie timbers of the houses, striking representa- 

 tions of such birds as the Muscovy duck, the swallow-tailed hawk, and 

 the heroiis and storks, in easily recognisable form, skilfully made up of 

 corn-cobs, sticks, and string, the habits of the negrocop being even 

 indicated by the figure of a fi.sh in its beak. It was interesting to note 

 how such forms as the heeri {Euxenara), the nigger-head (Jff/cte7'ia), 

 the negrocop {Jahiru), the cocoi heron {Ardea), and the American egret 

 (Cti7uero(liHs) were marked oif by their -size, the shape of beak, and the 

 colour of beak and legs. It would seem, therefore, that these birds are 

 familiar objects in these districts, from which it is not, in fact, a far 

 flight to Roi'aima, where the absence of some of them, as of others, 

 seems inexplicable except on the theory that they have only not yet 

 been procured. It may be mentioned, in relation to common names, 

 that on the coast the herons are usually known as " cranes " and 

 '' gauldings " according to size and colour. Thus the cocoi heron (known 

 to the Indians as "honore") becomes the " Idue or grey crane," the 

 large egret becomes the " white crane," while the snowy egret and 

 the blue heron are the '"white gaulding" and the "blue gaulding" 

 respectively. 



In one of the nearer villages on the Ui)per Ireng river, I once saw 

 a young swallow-tailed hawk being reai-ed entirely on large grass- 

 hoppei's of the genus Tropidacris (called by the Makushis "Sasa"), 

 which were plentiful in the locality, and were greedily eaten by the 

 bird, specimen after specimen being taken and quickly torn to pieces. 

 In anothei- of these villages the two species of the beautiful fire-taileii 

 parrots {Piirrhiira) were kept in ca))tivitv. One of them is known 

 fioin Roraima, as no doubt the other will be later. In these less 

 accessilde districts, far away from the common tra.de routes and 

 centres, Inrds and other animals in captivity were much less freiiucntly 

 seen than on the lower savaTui.'ihs, such ;is those about the Rupununi 

 river; and I think it probal)Ie that the practice iins been encnni';iged 

 and become established rather for the purposes of trade and barter, 

 whether witli travellers in the country or on the occasional visits (»f 

 the people to the coast, than from any real appreciation or lo\ e of the 

 creatures themselves. 



The very ]>eaiitiful ki.ssi-kissi parrots (Arathign^ and the kestrel am 

 mu'^li more common on the le>s elevnted parts of the plateau th;ui 

 about Roraima itself, the former being sometimes seen in flights of 

 several scf)re, whrniling about in sipiiidrons, as it wore, and ilashing 

 fruui copse to copse in the valloys, witl* piercing' crie«. It is ono of tiia 



