A BROCKET DEER: RESCUED FROM A FLOATING ISLAND WHEN A FAWN (SEE P. 171) 
and curl up on its back for warmth. My 
later introduction to this interesting ani- 
mal is referred to again when testing its 
eyes under an artificial light to see 
whether they would shine. 
SHOOTING A BOA-CONSTRICTOR 
The dispersal or isolation of wild life 
had mostly occurred before our arrival. 
Some of the best specimens of the larger 
animals were obtained, through the as- 
sistance of hounds, on several of the is- 
lands where the deer and peccaries were 
still abundant, but more or less preyed 
upon by jaguars and ocelot. One after- 
noon when cruising through a forest of 
gaunt, dead trees, ‘and where the water 
was fully 20 feet deep, we were surprised 
to see a large boa-constrictor sunning it- 
self on a limb not much above the sur- 
face. 
Regarding it as a good museum speci- 
men, a rifle ball pierced the body just 
back of the head, and with a convulsive 
movement the snake hurled itself toward 
the bow of the launch, from which it un- 
173 
fortunately slid into the water, leaving 
only a crimson circle and a string of bub- 
bles on its way to the bottom, where it 
could not be recovered, Whether it 
sought out a dead tree in the open water 
as the only available basking place in this 
deluged district or had found some form 
of prey unknown to us was hard to de- 
termine 
DIFFICULTIES OF NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY IN 
THE TROPICS 
While I had been previously success- 
ful in flashlight photography in southern 
climes like Mexico and the West Indies, 
this method in Panama proved difficult. 
Previous experiences had led me to ex- 
pect frequent annoying visits from the 
omnivorous opossum, but here the coun- 
try was alive with them after dark, rang- 
ing from the size of the northern species 
down to those no larger than a small 
squirrel (see page 187). No sooner was 
it dark than I could hear the reports from 
the scattered flashlight machines, with al- 
ways a probability of their having been 
