UP THE PARAGUAY 49 



Water-fowl were plentiful. We saw large flocks of wild 

 muscovy ducks. Our tame birds come from this wild spe- 

 cies and its absurd misnaming dates back to the period 

 when the turkey and guinea-pig were misnamed in similar 

 fashion — our European forefathers taking a large and hazy 

 view of geography, and including Turkey, Guinea, India, 

 and Muscovy as places which, in their capacity of being 

 outlandish, could be comprehensively used as including 

 America. The muscovy ducks were very good eating. 

 Darters and cormorants swarmed. They waddled on the 

 sand-bars in big flocks and crowded the trees by the water's 

 edge. Beautiful snow-white egrets also lit in the trees, often 

 well back from the river. A full-foliaged tree of vivid 

 green, its round surface crowded with these birds, as if it 

 had suddenly blossomed with huge white flowers, is a sight 

 worth seeing. Here and there on the sand-bars we saw 

 huge jabiru storks, and once a flock of white wood-ibis 

 among the trees on the bank. 



On the Brazilian boundary we met a shallow river 

 steamer carrying Colonel Candido Mariano da Silva Ron- 

 don and several other Brazilian members of the expedition. 

 Colonel Rondon immediately showed that he was all, and 

 more than all, that could be desired. It was evident that 

 he knew his business thoroughly, and it was equally evi- 

 dent that he would be a pleasant companion. He was a 

 classmate of Mr. Lauro Midler at the Brazilian Military 

 Academy. He is of almost pure Indian blood, and is a 

 Positivist — the Positivists are a really strong body in Brazil, 

 as they are in France and indeed in Chile. The colonel's 

 seven children have all been formally made members of 

 the Positivist Church in Rio Janeiro. Brazil possesses the 



