46 
GUATEMALA. 
or we should not have slept so quietly; as it was, the 
mosquitoes were very thick, and only our veils pro¬ 
tected us. 
It was a strange bed-chamber. The river, black be¬ 
neath and around us, was silent enough; for the current 
hardly rippled against our boat, no wind moved the 
leaves, and only our own voices broke the stillness while 
we waited for sleep. Suddenly a sound between a shriek 
and a roar burst almost over our heads. “ Tigre,” mut¬ 
tered Frank as he felt for his rifle. It was only a lion- 
bird ; but its terrible cry was repeated until it seemed to 
awake all the nocturnal noises of the forests that stretched 
for fifty miles around us. Howling monkeys (.Mycetes 
ursinus), a shrill water-bird, hooting owls, were all easily 
distinguished by our montero; and we slept more tran¬ 
quilly after his explanation, even though we thought we 
felt the rough back of an alligator scrape the bottom 
of our boat. I have heard the real tiger’s howl in the 
Sumatran jungle; but it was not so terrible as this 
wretched bird, nor are the tropical nocturnal noises so 
loud and various in any other place where I have been. 
So far the country through which we passed was worth¬ 
less for agricultural purposes; but early the next morning 
we came to an elevated limestone ridge, and beyond this 
outwork the banks grew sensibly higher, until they were 
some twelve feet above the present high water. With 
the higher banks appeared the iguanas; and I made my 
first shot, — a large female,— which was picked up, while 
three others fell into the water and sank before we could 
reach them. It was some time before I learned to dis¬ 
tinguish these reptiles; for they are nearly of the color of 
the branches on which they bask, and until they move, 
