PARASITE VEGETATION ON IJM.B OE A TREE 



Photo by Frank M. Chapman 



be found on the shore. Furthermore, on 

 the lagoons which mark the entrance of 

 the Tamesi into Panuco, the birds seemed 

 to have become in a measure accustomed 

 to the steady, even cough of our kind of 

 craft, and we passed within gunshot of 

 numerous coots, many species of ducks, 

 and even a small flock of roseate spoon- 

 bills, a bird with which we hoped to be- 

 come more familiar later. 



Soon the Tamesi narrowed to 150 or 

 200 feet, a width it held with surprisingly 

 little variation throughout the day. For 

 a time it wound through a grazing coun- 

 try, which is overflowed in the rainy sea- 

 son, where cattle were numerous and 

 trees almost wanting ; then for miles we 

 passed through plantations of bananas. 

 This moisture-loving plant can be grown 

 here only in the narrow strip formerly 

 occupied by the original forest on the 

 banks of the river. With the forest had 

 gone most of the wild life ; but man him- 

 self was here sufficiently primitive to be 

 a part of the fauna, and his picturesque 



thatched cabins and log-hewn canoes, and 

 the passing glimpses. of his way of life on 

 land and water, afforded interesting illus- 

 trations of the manner in which he meets 

 his environment. 



About 60 miles from Tampico we first 

 encountered primeval forest, which in 

 this low, comparatively arid coastal zone 

 is restricted to the river banks, and the 

 immediate increase in the number and 

 variety of birds seen, stimulated a some- 

 what flagging faith in the accuracy of 

 statements concerning the bird life about 

 the plantation which, be it confessed, we 

 had received with more or less incredu- 

 lity. 



It was 5.30 when we arrived, with just 

 enough daylight left to pitch our tents in 

 the ranch-house clearing on the banks of 

 the river. The brown stream flowed si- 

 lently by some 20 feet below us, with no 

 hint of the loss to life and property it had 

 caused only the preceding season, when 

 it flooded the country for miles. 



It is commonlv believed that to see 



539 



