THE MAGDALENA BIVER. 



69 



blue), and going off he returned with a saucer of wood ashes and a 

 moist rag, and began to rub the eggs. In a short wiiile all of the 

 white disappeared and they became the color of a robin's egg. He 

 said that they were the eggs of the ani. 



In the afternoon I skinned the birds, and we shot a good many 

 times at alligators. The river was now very crooked and swift and 

 full of sand-bars and snags, so at dusk we tied up for the night. 

 At this place we saw two long-tailed monkeys make off through the 

 treetops as we came up. We saw quantities of birds all day, blue 

 and yellow macaws, ducks, herons, ibises, parrakeets, spoonbills, etc. 



I was fighting red ants throughout the day. The few butter- 

 flies that I had captured, I tried in every way to save. They were 

 put in tin boxes with camphor, but whenever they were left for two 

 hours I invariably found them literally swarming with ants, their 

 heads and bodies eaten off, and their wings coming to pieces. No- 

 thing but putting them on a tumbler in a basin of water protected 

 them. This was impracticable for bird-skins, and I was afraid that 

 I would lose them all. I put the skins in the tray of my trunk, 

 which I suspended by strings from the ceiling, but by night I dis- 

 covered the ants traveling up and down the strings in an unbroken 

 column. After this I rubbed the strings with kerosene oil and car- 

 bolic acid, and tied lumps of camphor to them, but the ants were 

 not delayed in the slightest. I finally borrowed from the steward 

 three soup-plates, which I filled with water and placed in the centre 

 of each a tumbler ; on these three pedestals I put my tray, and the 

 ants were baffled at last. 



It was clear and very hot, especially in the early night, but we 

 were not troubled by mosquitoes. 



Wednesday, June 29, 1892. Cabell was taken with a slight 

 fever last night, caused by going out in the hot sun yesterday after- 

 noon. He felt badly all day, so did not leave the boat. At our 

 first stop, Lindauer and myself went ashore and killed a number of 

 birds. I shot first a pair of the little blue-rumped parrakeets [Pslt- 

 tacula co7ispiciUata), a male and female. The female is plain grass- 



