56 



A FLYING TRIP TO THE TROPICS. 



The majority of the passengers moved their cots out and slept on 

 deck under heavy mosquito nets. Among" the passengers we were 

 pleased to find Mr. Lindauer and his cousin, on their way to Bogota. 



Friday, June 24, 1892. We were up by daybreak, and after 

 having a cup of coffee went out on deck. At this hour the air felt 

 cool and fresh, and it was by far the pleasantest portion of the 

 day. The country through which we were passing was much the 

 same as that of the preceding day ; there were fewer cocoa palms 

 and more mangoes and plantains along the shores. Magnificent 

 unbroken forests stretched in all directions as far as the eye could 

 reach. From time to time we passed little mud huts, thatched here 

 with palms instead of rushes. 



The quantities of herons and other waterfowl that we saw were 

 incredible, the most abundant being the little snowy heron, which 

 fairly swarms along certain portions of the river. Whilst in Bar- 

 ranquilla, I saw in one of the papers an advertisement of a New 

 York dealer who offered to buy for cash the plumes of the snowy 

 heron and of the white egret. It was accompanied by two wretched 

 cuts of the birds with description of the manner of plucking and 

 shipping the plumes. For those of the snowy heron he offered from 

 $425 to $525 paper per pound, for those of the egret from $75 to 

 $110 paper per pound. I was told that he had obtained somewhere 

 near $10,000 worth of these plumes. As the snowy heron hardly 

 ever has a dozen good plumes, and often only five or six, and as 

 they have hardly any weight at all, one can easily imagine the num- 

 bers of birds that must have been sacrificed to the whim of fashion. 



As we passed a marshy spot, we saw near the water's edge a herd 

 of about a dozen reddish brown animals about the size of an aver- 

 age pig. They were capybaras {Hydroclioerus mrpyharci)^ the lar- 

 gest of the rodent family. They paid no attention to our boat. 



A little farther on, we saw walking about on a grassy spot a 

 couple of large birds, looking much like our turkey, but having 

 their heads covered with white feathers (Chauna d.erhicma). 



Later in the day we saw a good many macaws, some green, blue. 



