144 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



Hummingbirds, — sometimes two at once — came and filched 

 nesting material from the lower end, fraying it out very 

 appreciably. Their nests were attached to the lesser stems of 

 a dense clump of bamboo in the garden. 



This Swift was common on all the Guiana rivers, hawk- 

 ing with SwaUows over the water. Seen on the wing it 

 appears glossy black with a white throat and collar. 



It was the height of the season of courtship of the Palm 

 Tanagers "* and they were noisy and bold. A caged fe- 

 male proved to be a source of great attraction and several 

 wild ones kept coming to the cage. We trapped two 

 and they made themselves at home within a few minutes. 

 There was considerable variation, some being gray, almost 

 a bluish gray, while in others the green was strongly 

 dominant. 



The chickens and ducks were taken by two kinds of opos- 

 sums, one, large, ill-smelling and living in the bamboos, and 

 the other very small and rat-like. Game was abundant here 

 and tapirs, Tinamous and Guans were shot for food. The 

 mudflats were inhabited by a host of crabs; most of them 

 exactly like our little fiddlers, while others were larger and 

 blue or yellow in color. 



Sand-flies and mosquitoes were present in small numbers, 

 the latter troublesome enough for hammock nets at night, but 

 the worst pest hereabouts was the bete-rouge which abounded 

 in the grass both at Mount Everard and here. Nowhere 

 else did we suS'er so much from the fiendish little beasts. 

 Like sea-sickness or an earthquake, bete-rouge is a great 

 leveller of mankind, like a common disaster doing more to 

 make men " free and equal" than all the constitutions and 

 doctrines ever signed. In a bete-rouge infested region the 

 conversation is sooner or later sure to turn upon the sub- 

 ject of these little red mites. Everyone you meet has his or 

 her particular pet remedy to prescribe. The subject under 



