62 A JAGUAR-HUNT ON THE TAQUARY 



of the tree hyrax in East Africa ; and, like the East 

 African mammal, this South American insect has a 

 voice, or rather utters a sound, which, so far as it 

 resembles any other animal sound, at the beginning 

 remotely suggests batrachian affinities. The locomotive 

 whistle part of the utterance, however, resembles 

 nothing so much as a small steam siren ; when first 

 heard it seems impossible that it can be produced by an 

 insect. 



On December 17 Colonel Rondon and several mem- 

 bers of our party started on a shallow river steamer for 

 the ranch of Senhor de Barros, "Las Palmeiras," on 

 the Rio Taquary. We went down the Paraguay for 

 a few miles, and then up the Taquary. It was a 

 beautiful trip. The shallow river — we were aground 

 several times — wound through a vast marshy plain, 

 with occasional spots of higher land on which trees 

 grew. There were many water-birds. Darters swarmed. 

 But the conspicuous and attractive bird was the stately 

 jabiru stork. Flocks of these storks whitened the 

 marshes and lined the river-banks. They were not shy 

 for such big birds ; before flying they had to run a few 

 paces and then launch themselves on the air. Once, at 

 noon, a couple soared round overhead in wide rings, 

 rising higher and higher. On another occasion, late in 

 the day, a flock passed by, gleaming white with black 

 points in the long afternoon lights, and with them were 

 spoonbills, showing rosy amid their snowy companions. 

 Caymans, always called jacar^s, swarmed ; and we killed 

 scores of the noxious creatures. They were singularly 

 indifferent to our approach and to the sound of the 

 shots. Sometimes they ran into the water erect on 

 their legs, looking like miniatures of the monsters of 

 the prime. One showed by its behaviour how httle an 



