CHAP. Ill] A SOUTH AMERICAN FAZENDA 69 



saddle-room, storehouse, chicken-house, and stable. 

 The chicken-house was allotted to Kermit and Miller 

 for the preparation of the specimens ; and there they 

 worked industriously. With a big skin, like that of the 

 giant ant-eater, they had to squat on the ground ; while 

 the ducklings and wee chickens scuffled not only round 

 the skin, but all over it, grabbing the shreds and scraps 

 of meat and catching flies. The fourth end of the quad- 

 rangle was formed by a corral and a big wooden scaf- 

 folding on which hung hides and strips of drying meat. 

 Extraordinary to relate, there were no mosquitoes at 

 the ranch ; why I cannot say, as they ought to swarm in 

 these vast pantanals, or swamps. Therefore, in spite 

 of the heat, it was very pleasant. Near by stood other 

 buildings : sheds, and thatched huts of palm-logs in 

 which the ordinary peons lived, and big corrals. In the 

 quadrangle were flamboyant trees, with their masses of 

 brilliant red flowers and delicately cut, vivid green foli- 

 age. Noisy oven-birds haunted these trees. In a high 

 palm in the garden a family of green parakeets had 

 taken up their abode, and were preparing to buUd nests. 

 They chattered incessantly both when they flew and 

 when they sat or crawled among the branches. Ibis 

 and plover, crying and wailing, passed immediately 

 overhead. Jacanas frequented the ponds near by ; the 

 peons, with a familiarity which to us seems sacrilegious, 

 but to them was entirely inoffensive and matter-of- 

 course, called them "the Jesus Christ birds," because 

 they walked on the water. There was a wealth of 

 strange bird life in the neighbourhood. There were 

 large papyrus-marshes, the papyrus not being a fifth, 

 perhaps not a tenth, as high as in Africa. In these 

 swamps were many blackbirds. Some uttered notes 

 that reminded me of our own redwings. Others, with 



