BIRDS 31 



moment was killed, the jaguar driving his fangs through 

 the man's skull into the brain. There was a scene of 

 uproar and confusion, and the jaguar was forced to drop 

 his prey and flee into the woods. Next morning they 

 followed him with the dogs, and finally killed him. He 

 was a large male, in first-class condition. The only 

 feature of note about these two incidents was that in 

 each case the man-eater was a powerful animal in the 

 prime of life ; whereas it frequently happens that the 

 jaguars that turn man-eaters are old animals, and have 

 become too inactive or too feeble to catch their ordi- 

 nary prey. 



During the two months before starting from Asuncion, 

 in Paraguay, for our journey into the interior, T was 

 kept so busy that 1 had scant time to think of natural 

 history. But in a strange land a man who cares for 

 wild birds and wild beasts always sees and hears some- 

 thing that is new to him and interests him. In the 

 dense tropical woods near Rio Janeiro I heard, in late 

 October — springtime near the southern tropic — the 

 songs of many birds that I could not identify. But the 

 most beautiful music was from a shy woodland thrush, 

 sombre-coloured, which lived near the ground in the 

 thick timber, but sang high among the branches. At 

 a great distance we could hear the ringing, musical, 

 bell-like note, long-drawn and of piercing sweetness, 

 which occurs at intervals in the song ; at first I thought 

 this was the song, but when it was possible to approach 

 the singer, I found that these far-sounding notes were 

 scattered through a continuous song of great melody. 

 I never listened to one that impressed me more. In 

 different places in Argentina I heard and saw the 

 Argentine mocking-bird, which is not very much unlike 



