I02 Through the BraziHan Wilderness 



in one corral. Spurred plover, or lapwings, strolled 

 familiarly among the hens. Parakeets and red-headed 

 tanagers lit in the trees over our heads. A kind of 

 primitive houseboat was moored at the bank. A woman 

 was cooking breakfast over a little stove at one end. 

 The crew were ashore. The boat was one of those which 

 are really stores, and which travel up and down these 

 rivers, laden with what the natives most need, and stop- 

 ping wherever there is a ranch. They are the only stores 

 which many of the country-dwellers see from year's end 

 to year's end. They float down-stream, and up-stream 

 are poled by their crew, or now and then get a tow from 

 a steamer. This one had a house with a tin roof ; others 

 bear houses with thatched roofs, or with roofs made 

 of hides. The river wound through vast marshes broken 

 by belts of woodland. 



Always the two naturalists had something of interest 

 to tell of their past experience, suggested by some bird 

 or beast we came across. Black and golden orioles, 

 slightly crested, of two different species were found 

 along the river; they nest in colonies, and often we 

 passed such colonies, the long pendulous nests hanging 

 from the boughs of trees directly over the water. Cher- 

 rie told us of finding such a colony built round a big 

 wasp-nest, several feet in diameter. These wasps are 

 venomous and irritable, and few foes would dare ven- 

 ture near bird's-nests that were under such formidable 

 shelter; but the birds themselves were entirely unafraid, 

 and obviously were not in any danger of disagreement 

 with their dangerous protectors. We saw a dark ibis 

 flying across the bow of the boat, uttering his deep, 



