THE LAND OF A SINGLE TREE. 29 



each armed with a reptile-hke claw, and at the approach of 

 danger the birds chmb actively about like squirrels or lizards. 



It has usually been tliought that when they grow up they 

 lose all these reptilian liabits and behave as conventional feath- 

 ered bipeds should. But we find that while, of course, the 

 fingers are deeply hidden beneath the long flight-feathers of 

 the wing, yet these very feathers are often used, fingerlike, in 

 forcing aside thick vines, the birds thus clambering and push- 

 ing their way along. 



It was with the keenest delight of the pioneer and dis- 

 coverer that we watched these rare creatures. Although 

 they do not nest until July and August, yet we found them in 

 the very trees and bushes which held the remains of last year's 

 nests, thus revealing their sedentary life during the rest of 

 the year. And day after day and week after week we learned 

 to know that they would be found in this or that tree and 

 nowhere else; they were veritable feathered sloths. They 

 fed chiefly upon leaves, but fish also entered into the bill of 

 fare of at least one individual. 



We shot two, one for the skin and the other for the skeleton, 

 and we found the plumage in a very worn and ragged con- 

 dition, the wing feathers especially so, where the branches and 

 leaves had rubbed and worn away the barbs. Throughout 

 the noonday heat these birds were always to be found in the 

 foliage overhanging the water, ready when disturbed to flop 

 and thrash a few yards through the mangroves and bamboos. 



After many days of pure delight, our note-books filled and 

 our photographic plates more than half gone, we decided to 

 see something of the Venezuelan dry land. We would go on 

 and on until we had left the mangroves with all their un- 

 peopled mystery behind us, and see what new surprises the 

 villages of the Guarauno (War-ah-oo'iio) Indians and the 

 jungles of the foot-hills would alTord. 



At nine o'clock one night, when the stars alone cast a faint 



