3i8 
Novel Mode or Hauling Boats. 
Pöppig meiitiou a .siiuihu- bud and are like^^is(' ciieliautcd witli its 
song : atcoiding to tlie latter it is tailed Organi!>ta or Flautero in Peru. 
As day broke I saw the lovely songster hopping among the brushwood. It 
belongs to the genus Cijphorhinus Cab. The forehead and breast of 
('l/phorJiiiiuy; caiitans are rustt coloured while the sides of the neck show 
black and hite strij^es : otherwise its plumage corresponds exactly with 
the genus Tryolhoniti. The pretty t)ird is already described by Uulfon 
who calls it J iiiihin coiihuts (Musicien de Cayenne, Musician Thrush), 
On examining a specimen brought in spirits, Johannes Müller discovered 
that it possesses the complete singing-muscle ai)paratus of singing birds. 
JSwainson has also figured it in his 'SSelection of the Birds of Brazil and 
Mexico/" i)late li, without, however, mentioning its glorious note: he 
calls it Tryothorus corin<üiis. The Caribs called it Deko-deko, the 
Macusis Puideng, the Arekunas Ticompai. 1 have already mentioned 
the lovely voice of the Tnjoilionis pJatcnsis I'r. ^seuw. 
840. In the niatiy small forest streams wliich \N'e passed during the 
course of the day, but ar(> almost, completely «leyoid of water during the 
dry months. 1 found tlie A m imJIdrid ort noccnisis iu considerable quan- 
tities : I sought in vain however for the large Ampullaria urceus. I was 
satislied here tliat tlic .1 iii/nill(iri(i living in tbe small creeks that are mo«t- 
ly dri<'d up during the di y seascn lie eii)])ed(h d in the si»li<l mud for months 
at a time without having j"» drop of water and yet continue to live within 
their operculum-closed shell : my attention was drawn to the fact by 
my companions plougliiug them up from out of the hardened bottom, 
for as I have already stated they regard these snails as delicacies. The 
river itself, throughout t1ie course of the day, continued coming from 
the S.E. hut OAving to its bed being almost completely lilled with over- 
turned tre<^s was hardly 80 feet wide now. We pitched camp at the 
moutli of the small stream Arunamay, that flows into the Pomeroon 
fi'om the S.W. and set our si)ring liooks. During all my travels I never 
found howler monkeys as plentiful as they Avere here. 
847. Next morning the barricades became more impenetrable than 
ever and the vegetation along the banks more rank, until it finally reach- 
ed the state of wantonness that had so often snr]n ised me. Trees felled 
])y the wind furni.shed us with quite a peculiar landscape to-day. The 
torn and splintered trees on l)oth sides of the straigiit course alolig whicli 
it had run showed that the real force of the wind had been limited to a 
definite widtli, within the area of which all were lying uprooted, and 
resembled trampled-down reeds rather than forest giants. 
848. It soon became impossible to force our way through the ob- 
structions: the boats had to be hauled over, a labour tliat was much 
lightened l)y a simple procednre on the part of the Indians. When we 
came to such a spot, they peeled off long strips of bark fi'om the Tuf/a 
trees, the inner side of which contains a gummy slime, laid these with 
the slimy side u]i u]>ou the timbers, and the l)oats were then slid over 
iust as easily as sledges over snow. The river-bed soon had but a 
breadth of 20 feet. The flora of the banks contained many of tlie plants 
described by von Auldet. Trees and luislies were alive with birds and 
quadrupeds, among which latter the large packs of bush-hog often gave 
