STEAMER AND LAUNCH TO HOORIE CREEK. 139 



Tanagers which flashed past now and then. 'Die long, grad- 

 uated tail, the glossy black and white plumage and the con- 

 spicuous white iris mark this as one of the most striking of 

 the Tanagers. The call-note was loud and harsh Ijut the 

 tones of those we saw in captivity and of one individual which 

 we brought back alive were pleasant and modulated. 



Euphonias, Blue,"^ Palm,'" and Silver-beak "" Tanagers 

 and Red-underwing Doves '" were all nesting close to the 

 settlement, while in a good-sized tree whose branches were 

 brushing against the "hotel" windows were some hundred 

 nests of Cassirjues — the Red '■'" and the Yellow-backed '■''' in 

 about ccpial numbers. When the two were seen fighting, 

 tlie Red-backed seemed invariably to ha\'e the better of it. 

 The natives here think the different colors mark the two 

 sexes. 



Just before sunset the wharf at ^Nlount Everard began to 

 show signs of life. All day it had l^ecn deserted, a few small 

 flat-bottomed boats, which we came later to know by the 

 native name of ballyhoos, being moored idly against the dock; 

 but now as the d-ay drew to a close, grou])s of Indians and 

 negroes gathered. We hung over the railing of our Ijoat and 

 watched them as lazily and as curiously as they watched us. 

 Then the cpuet air was rent with a medley of grunts and 

 squeals and brays, the cries and shouts of human beings 

 rising above all the other sounds, as a large party of men 

 appeared escorting one scrawn)' cow, one lean but energetic 

 hog, and finally one donkey, in whose being was concentrated 

 all the stubborness to which his race is heir. The problem was 

 to load these beasts into one of the waiting ballyhoos. The 

 ballyhoo was small, the current was moving it to and fro, and 

 the cow and the donkey and the hog were not minded to go 

 a-voyaging. As the negro always talks to his beast of burden 

 as though it were his intellectual and social equal, so in this 

 case the men approached the animals with all manner of 



