Our search for a wilderness; an account of two ornithological expeditions to Venezuela and to British Guiana (1910) (14750171334)

Identifier: oursearchforwild00nile (find matches)
Title: Our search for a wilderness; an account of two ornithological expeditions to Venezuela and to British Guiana
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Niles, Blair Beebe, William, 1877-1962
Subjects: Natural history Birds
Publisher: New York, H. Holt and company



Text Appearing Before Image:
Fig. 154. (C) Male Hoatzin alarmed and about to take Flight. Pushing aside the dense growth of Arums and vines, weworked our canoe as far as possible into the heart of thebush, to the foot of some good-sized tree perhaps a foot in di-ameter. Stepping from the boat to the lowest limb, Miladywould hand me the big Graflex with the unwieldy butnecessary 27-inch lens, and I began my painful ascent.At first all was easy going, but as I ascended I broke off THE LIFE OF THE ABARY SAVANNAS. 373 numerous dead twigs and from the broken stub of eachissued a horde of black stinging ants. These hastened myascent and at last I made my way out on the swaying upperbranches. (Fig. 151.) From here I had a fairly clear viewof the surrounding bush and if I worked rapidly I couldsecure three or four pictures before the Hoatzins took flightand hid amid the foliage.
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 155. (D) Female Hoatzin crouching to avoid Observation. Of all my pictures that of Fig. 157 is the prize. Wecame upon a flock of Hoatzins late in the afternoon and werefortunate enough to get into a clear space and to photographeleven on the same plate; the confused mass near the centreof the picture containing four individuals. Fig. E48 showsthe character of the countrv where we found the Hoatzins on 374 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. Abary River, with the line of dense growth on one side andthe level savanna on the other. A study of an individual pair of birds is given in Figs. 152to 156, and the actions of these two birds were so typical ofHoatzins that an account of them will apply to the species ingeneral. I made these photographs from a boat, standingon the thwarts while Milady guided it through the brush. We flushed the female from her nest (marked by a circlein Fig. 150) and she flew to a branch some eight feet higher(Fig. 152). The male then appeared from a tree beyond(cen