208 
WANDERINGS IN 
THIRD 
JOURNEY. 
Birds. 
Turtle's 
nests. 
disappointment, we went to the hammocks, turned 
in, and fell asleep. 
When day broke, we found that he had contrived 
to get the bait from the hook, though we had tied it 
on with string. We had now no more hopes of 
taking a cayman, till the return of night. The Indian 
took off into the woods, and brought back a noble 
supply of game. The rest of us went into the canoe, 
and proceeded up the river to shoot fish. We got 
even more than we could use. 
As we approached the shallows, we could see the 
large sting-rays moving at the bottom. The coloured 
man never failed to hit them with his arrow. The 
weather was delightful. There was scarcely a cloud 
to intercept the sun’s rays. 
I saw several scarlet aras, ariihingas, and ducks, 
but could not get a shot at them. The parrots crossed 
the river in innumerable quantities, always flying in 
pairs. Here, too, I saw the Sun-bird, called Tirana 
by the Spaniards in the Oroonoque, and shot one of 
them. The black and white scarlet-headed finch 
was very common here. I could never see this bird 
in the Demerara, nor hear of its being there. 
We at last came to a large sand-bank, probably 
two miles in circumference. As we approached it 
we could see two or three hundred fresh-water turtle 
on the edge of the bank. Ere we could get near 
enough to let fly an arrow at them, they had all 
sunk into the river and appeared no more. 
We went on the sand-bank to look for their nests, 
as this was the breeding season. The coloured man 
