ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
151 
SKIN OF ADULT WATER OPOSSUM OR YAPOCK 
The remarkable pattern is plainly shown. 
greyed with mist, and a complete circle of songs 
closed in upon us. They were antbirds, but 
wholly invisible in the dark undergrowth. The 
sweet dropping notes trickled continually, as 
if a score of tiny rills were tinkling down rocky 
ways toward us. 
Up stream a wide slope of mossy rock 
stretched from bank to bank, with the dry sea¬ 
son brook confined to a deep, even-sided trough 
down the centre. Everywhere were geometrically 
rounded potholes bored straight down into the 
rock, many dew or spray-filled, to the rims of 
which came occasional green midget kingfishers, 
who clicked at us, then dived, caught something 
too small for us to see, and finally flew on 
around the bend. 
As I looked, a long-tailed lizard rushed out 
from shore and stopped, body flat, head and 
neck high arched. It made its way with quick 
sudden rushes across the open, snatched some 
titbit now and then, and, to my delight, became 
a biped at each rush. The first step took it 
up on finger tips, and then a short distance far¬ 
ther, its forelegs rose clear, folded close to its 
breast, the tail upraised, and I saw before me 
a tiny dinosaur speeding toward the opposite 
bank. 
With a warning grunt my companion reached 
slowly for his gun, looking behind me and down¬ 
stream. Like a well-trained setter, I slowly 
flattened, rolled over and froze, and saw T a good- 
sized, stoutly-built otter nosing over the open 
rock where we had passed. She was suspicious, 
and with dim, water-flattened eyes looked in 
our direction, striving to make us out. We se¬ 
cured her, Lutra re panda, and found she meas¬ 
ured thirty-eight inches in length, full-grown 
but not breeding, with long flattened tail, and 
most excellent fur for a tropical otter. I traced 
her back and found that while she had slid 
gently down a steep bank, yet further on she 
had been in the river bed. In fact her food 
showed that she must have been feeding for a 
considerable period of daylight before we saw 
her at six o’clock. She had caught many small 
fish, mostly the dark mancholas, so abundant 
here, together with many shrimp and catfish. 
The subdued report of the small collecting 
gun had no effect on the antbirds’ chorus, but 
as the dusk settled down, they thinned out, not 
weakening with distance but silencing one by 
one. Before the last ceased, a new sound arose 
