File:Our search for a wilderness; an account of two ornithological expeditions to Venezuela and to British Guiana (1910) (14565796360).jpg

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

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ouse of the governmentagent of this district, Mr. Nicholson, and were made welcomeat his little home in the heart of the wilderness. The houseis on a steep bluff of red clay, changing to yellow near thewater and commanding a fine view up and down the river.Below, the river is smooth and shining, while a quarter ofa mile above the house a mass of tumbling w hile w ater blocksfurther progress and marks the second portage. In the yard near the house one passes through a cluster ofyoung fruit trees and here two small colonies of Yellow-backed Cassiques151 had located, clustering their pendentnests almost within arms reach about two big nests of sting- 254 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. ing ants. At dusk several hundred Smooth-billed Anis80dropped into a clump of bamboo and with much racket andsquabbling settled for the night. This region is wholly undisturbed, the few pork-knockersand Indians who pass keeping entirely to the river. Mr.Nicholson told us that Capybaras (Hydrochoerus capybara)
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Fig. 107. Cuyuni River. came every night and raided the vegetable garden, and we had good evidence of this. Pushing through the bush a short distance downstream at dusk, we saw a small herd of thesecreatures appear and distribute themselves over the banks.Some waded along the shallows, or swam out and dived, tocome up with a mouthful of alga-. Others climbed the clayslope and disappeared into the jungle. They seemed like WATER TRAIL FROM GEORGETOWN TO AREMU. 255 reincarnations of some of the great unwieldy prehistoricbeasts — restorations of those bones by which alone weknow of their existence in past ages. It was too dark tophotograph these giant rodents, but by the kindness ofDr. Bingham we are able to show several splendid photo-graphs of Capybaras, taken in their haunts.

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