292 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS 



over three quarters of an inch. All the blue branchlets 

 ended in a dark, tiny needle point, and they stung like netdes 

 as we found when we accidentally touched some. 



I had never heard of a contest between two such creatures, 

 and should think the scorpion must have been hard put to it 

 for food, to make frantic attempts to secure such a prickly 

 mouthful. 



Fig. 127 Scorpion and Caterpillar after their Battle. 



South of the bungalow, scrubby bush had been allowed 

 to grow up and here was a scattering of non-forest birds; 

 three pairs of Silver-beak Tanagers "" and a pair of Seed- 

 eaters."' Gray-rumped Swifts " coursed over the clearing 

 and Toucans, Macaws and Orange-headed Vultures °" were 

 occasionally seen from the bungalow, while a pair of splen- 

 did Red-crested Woodpeckers *"* hammered the trunks and 

 leaped from tree to tree all through the day. 



In the clearing itself we saw little of mammalian life, al- 

 though we dined daily on all the bush meat from bush-pig 



