88 A JAGUAR-HUNT ON THE TAQUARY 



an adequate idea of the wealth of bird life in these 

 marshes. A naturahst could, with the utmost advantage, 

 spend six months on such a ranch as that we visited. 

 He would have to do some collecting, but only a httle. 

 Exhaustive observation in the field is what is now most 

 needed. Most of this wonderful and harmless bird life 

 should be protected by law ; and the mammals should 

 receive reasonable protection. The books now most 

 needed are those dealing with the life-histories of wild 

 creatures. 



Near the ranch-house, walking famiharly among the 

 cattle, we saw the big, deep-billed Ani blackbirds. 

 They feed on the insects disturbed by the hoofs of the 

 cattle, and often cling to them and pick off the ticks. 

 It was the end of the nesting season, and we did not 

 find their curious communal nests, in which half a dozen 

 females lay their eggs indiscriminately. The common 

 ibises in the ponds near by — which usually went in 

 pairs, instead of in flocks like the wood-ibis — were very 

 tame, and so were the night herons and all the smaU 

 herons. In flying, the ibises and storks stretch the 

 neck straight in front of them. The jabiru — a 

 splendid bird on the wing — also stretches his neck 

 out in front, but there appears to be a slight downward 

 curve at the base of the neck, which may be due merely 

 to the craw. The big slender herons, on the contrary, 

 bend the long neck back in a beautiful curve, so that 

 the head is nearly between the shoulders. One day I 

 saw what I at first thought was a small yellow-bellied 

 kingfisher hovering over a pond, and finally plunging 

 down to the surface of the water after a school of tiny 

 young fish ; but it proved to be a bien-te-vi king-bird. 

 Curved-bUl wood-hewers, birds the size and somewhat 

 the coloration of veeries, but with long, slender sickle- 



