STEAMER AND LAUNCH TO HOORIE CREEK. 1 37 



we thought them, but to be dwarfed by the inland giants of 

 our succeeding expeditions. The walls of vegetation were 

 seventy or eighty feet in height, draped by vines, while dead 

 branches protruded here and there from the water near shore. 

 Many Snake-birds ^" were perched on these snags, from 

 which they dropped silently into the water at our approach 

 and swam off with body immersed. 



Blue-and-Yellow Macaws" were common — always as 

 usual in multiples of two. We observerl them a half dozen 

 times in different reaches of the river, four in the first group, 

 tlien eight, two, six, four and two. A trio of American 

 Egrets ^" kcjit flying aliead of us for several miles, hemmed 

 in by the lofty walls of foliage, alighting now and then and 

 waiting for the steamer. At last when only ten yards dis- 

 tant they rose and floated over our heads. 



Once a splendid Guiana Crested Eagle " flew past and 

 alighted on a dead tree, and twice we saw small colonies 

 of Yellow '■'' and Red-backed ''■ Cassiques nesting in isolated 

 Mora trees out in the ivater; a new method of protection on 

 the part of these intelligent birds. At occasional intervals a 

 nesting pair of White-throated Kingljirds '" was seen, but 

 no other of the Tyrants which are so common about houses 

 in this region. The event of the day came when we caught 

 a flash of white from a Buzzard floating high overhead and 

 our stereos showed a King Vulture"'" circling slowly around, 

 craning his wattled head down at us as he drifted past. We 

 had never expected to see this bird near the coast and 

 indeed we saw no others during our entire stay in Guiana. 



As we steamed past a wind-break we caught a momentary 

 glimpse of two wee naked Indian children paddling away 

 in a wood-skin while behind them their bronze-skinned 

 parents watched us silent'y. 



Mount Everard lies about fifty miles from Morawhanna 

 up the Barima River and consists of a ramshackle hotel and 



