up the River of Tapirs 137 



down while the trumpet sounded and all of us stood at 

 attention. Camp was pitched beside the ranch buildings. 

 In the trees near the tents grew wonderful violet orchids. 

 Many birds were around us; I saw some of them, 

 and Cherrie and Miller many, many more. They ranged 

 from party-colored macaws, green parrots, and big 

 gregarious cuckoos down to a brilliant green-and-chest- 

 nut kingfisher, five and a quarter inches long, and a tiny 

 orange-and-green manakin, smaller than any bird I have 

 ever seen except a hummer. We also saw a bird that 

 really was protectively colored; a kind of whippoorwill 

 which even the sharp-eyed naturalists could only make 

 out because it moved its head. We saw orange-bellied 

 squirrels with showy orange tails. Lizards were com- 

 mon. We killed our first poisonous snake (the second 

 we had seen), an evil lance-headed jararaca that was 

 swimming the river. We also saw a black-and-orange 

 harmless snake, nearly eight feet long, which we were 

 told was akin to the mussurama; and various other 

 snakes. One day while paddling in a canoe on the river, 

 hoping that the dogs might drive a tapir to us, they 

 drove into the water a couple of small bush deer instead. 

 There was no point in shooting them; we caught them 

 with ropes thrown over their heads; for the naturalists 

 needed them as specimens, and all of us needed the meat. 

 One of the men was stung by a single big red maribundi 

 wasp. For twenty-four hours he was in great pain and 

 incapacitated for work. In a lagoon two of the dogs 

 had the tips of their tails bitten off by piranhas as they 

 swam, and the ranch hands told us that in this lagoon 

 one of their hounds had been torn to pieces and com- 



