^enry K, Svenson to Zstek, Salines Ecuador March 22 1941 
**There has been an unexpected miny season in Ecuador, different from 
anjfthing that has secured here within memory. In 1939 there was a very 
heavy rainfall, in 1940 almost nothing, so far over l8 inches of rain have 
fallen in Salinas and the precipitation has been increasingly greater toward 
Guayaquil. The temperatures here range up to 88, the hottest weather that 
anybody can remember. Countless thousands of guano birds are flying back and 
forth looking for food, and the beaches and fields are littered with dead birds 
that have come over from Peru- thousands upon thousands of them (mostly red- 
syed cormorants) so that the smell is almost unbearable in the coves along 
the ocean. There have been heavy rains also along the coast of Peru and the 
ocean in this part of Ecua.dor has turned green instead of remaining deep 
blue as usual. As Dr, Murphy wrote am in one of his recent books such a 
tragedy to bird life also occured in 1926. The woods are filled with mosquitoes 
and none of the roads in eastern Ecuador are passable except the asphalt road 
between Salinas and Ancon. I am going to Talara at the end of the coming week.** 
