The Headwaters of the Paraguay iii 



baras. Where there were no ponds of sufficient size the 

 capybaras sought refuge in flight through the tangled 

 marsh. They ran well. Kermit and Fiala went after 

 one on foot, full-speed, for a mile and a half, with two 

 hounds which then bayed it — ^literally bayed it, for the 

 capybara fought with the courage of a gigantic wood- 

 chuck. If the pack overtook a capybara, they of course 

 speedily finished it; but a single dog of our not very 

 valorous outfit was not able to overmatch its shrill- 

 squeaking opponent. 



Near the ranch-house, about forty feet up in a big 

 tree, was a jabiru's nest containing young jabirus. The 

 young birds exercised themselves by walking solemnly 

 round the edge of the nest and opening and shutting 

 their wings. Their heads and necks were down-covered, 

 instead of being naked like those of their parents. Fiala 

 wished to take a moving-picture of them while thus 

 engaged, and so, after arranging his machine, he asked 

 Harper to rouse the young birds by throwing a stick up 

 to the nest. He did so, whereupon one young jabiru 

 hastily opened its wings in- the desired fashion, at the 

 same time seizing the stick in its bill! It dropped it 

 at once, with an air of comic disappointment, when it 

 found that the stick was not edible. 



There were many strange, birds round about. Tou- 

 cans were not uncommon. I have never seen any other 

 bird take such grotesque and comic attitudes as the tou- 

 can. This day I saw one standing in the top of a tree 

 with the big bill pointing straight into the air and the 

 tail also cocked perpendicularly. The toucan is a born 

 comedian. On the river and in the ponds we saw the 



