190 
Mus. McClintock’s Bird Collection. 
mast that stood in front of the dwelling and served as a signal station. 
Our poor catechist was troubled most, because the mosquitoes seemed 
to have specially singled out his thin-haired head and large bald spot 
for their field of operations. Groaning and cursing, the man of Peace 
wound several cloths around his head but all to no purpose, because the 
stings of the fiends pierced them, and to save it he had to stick on his 
hat the whole night through. At last the longed-for day broke and we 
greeted it wilh glee — unfortunately, we could not leave this awful 
place, for the ebb had just set in and proved so strong that our boathands 
would not have been able to pull against it. It was only about 10 o’clock 
that the pests disappeared. When our attentive hostess came to bid 
us good-morning after a bad night, we expressed surprise at her being 
able to stay and pass her life in such a spot as this, but she assured us 
that it was not too bad, for these swarms only appeared at certain times, 
but as luck would have it, we had come just at one of such most unfor- 
tunate occasions: besides that, her little room was closed in so firmly and 
tightly, and their beds so carefully protected with two mosquito nets, 
that she and her husband were only rarely driven out. If conditions 
such as the present lasted for long, then of course they had to go up the 
river and stay with friends until the unpleasant creatures had taken 
their departure. To while away the time in this isolated and lonesome 
locality Mrs. McClintock had established one of the largest menageries 
of birds that I had ever seen. The yard and roof were regularly covered 
with glorious red this in all shades of colour, with cranes, sunbirds, Crax , 
Penelope, Psophia, Ton and parrots, that smoothed their beautiful 
plumage in the morning sunshine, and after joining the throngs of their 
wild companions flying high overhead, would then turn home again after 
a while. One of her parrots, a Psittacus puluerulentus won my whole 
heart, for net only did it articulate distinctly, but also sang some English 
songs and whistled ‘‘Rule Britannia” in a masterly fashion. With the 
incoming flood we left our pleasant hostess but unpleasant house. 
G34. The mouth of the Pcmeroon is situate 7° 36 lat. X. and 58° 44' 
long. W. and might be about three miles wide with a depth of 0 foot of 
water at ebb tide and 13 at the flood which somewhat higher up the river 
increases to 40 feet. The bed of the river consists of a muddy bottom. 
Its sides are flat and covered with the usual coastal vegetation for some 
miles up where the plantations commence: except for three plantain 
estates however, these are now completely abandoned. Here on the 
eastern bank stood formerly Fort New Zealand and the small market- 
town of Xew Middleburg both of which during the war in 1666 were 
destroyed by the English. After Emancipation a number of Blacks 
bought one of the abandoned estates and parcelled it out and so started 
the small Negro colony of Middleburg. 
635. Several creeks fall into the Pomeroon on the western bank: the 
Wac-a-pau is the most important of these and is occupied by Arawaks. - 
On t lie Aikoni is the Colonial Hospital for Lepers which has been shifted 
as far as possible from Georgetown to prevent contagion by every means; 
