FLASHLIGHT OF TWO NOCTURNAL RAILS THAT USED THE DRY CREEK BOTTOM WHERE 



THE FLASH WAS SET 



Like the opossums, they fired it repeatedly, pulling on the string whether baited with fruit 



or meat 



fired by a marsupial. In several instances 

 the flash was sprung by a species of night 

 rail, other times by large rats or flying 

 bats (see page 176), and not infrequently 

 by decaying vegetation dropping from 

 the forest tops. 



In the daytime the ever-present buz- 

 zard soon associated the green tin boxes 

 covering the cameras with a near - by 

 feast and it became necessary to set the 

 flash just at dusk whenever meat bait was 

 used (see page 177). 



But worst of all was the extreme hu- 

 midity, so that plates left exposed in the 

 camera for more than two nights and de- 

 veloped at irregular periods became so 

 mildewed as to be worthless. 



A PANIC-STRICKEN JAGUAR 



In one instance the flash fired by a 

 jaguar, at a considerable distance from 

 the house-boat, was visited too late to 

 save the plate, and all I had for the effort 

 was the sight of the clawed bank caused 



by the big animal as it sprang away in 

 terror when the dazzling, booming flash 

 greeted an effort to carry off the skinned 

 body of an opossum, while the same re- 

 sult occurred in the case of a tapir pass- 

 ing along a runway to the water. 



Moisture - absorbing chemicals in the 

 camera would have overcome this, but 

 none were at hand when most needed. 

 Undoubtedly flashlight photography is 

 the ideal way of getting pictures of the 

 larger - sized South American animals, 

 where, aside from their being almost 

 wholly nocturnal, the dense brush pre- 

 vents any possibility of daylight pictures 

 unless such animals can be cornered or 

 treed by the use of hounds. 



That the jaguar occasionally hunts in 

 the daytime was shown when Mr. An- 

 thony, shortly after leaving the house- 

 boat, had a big boar peccary nearly knock 

 him over as he was standing scanning the 

 tree-tops for a shot at a squirrel. He 

 fired at it with small shot, rolling it over 



174 



