File:Our search for a wilderness; an account of two ornithological expeditions to Venezuela and to British Guiana (1910) (14566066087).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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on we came to know and distinguishindividual birds. Two, one of which had a broken feather inthe right wing, and the other a two-inch short central tailfeather, were excellent flyers and, taking their leaping startfrom the high branch, never failed to make their goal, goingthe whole distance and alighting easily. All of the othershad to rest and one which was moulting a feather in eachwing could achieve only about ten yards. This one fell oneevening into the water at the second relay flight, and halfflopped, half swam ashore. One evening a Hoatzin flew toward us and alighted nearsome hens on the ground, but took wing almost instantly THE LIFE OF THE ABARY SAVANNAS. 369 back to his brush-wood. A day or two before we came oneof the birds had used a beam of the porch as a perch. This general movement occurred at both sunrise and sun-set and was always as thorough and noisy as we found it thefirst evening of our stay. For months, we were told, it hadbeen kept up as regularly as clockwork.
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Fig. 152. (A) Female Hoatzin flushed from her Nest; the MaleBird approaching. In the morning as the sun grew hotter the birds becamequiet and finally disappeared, not to be heard or seen againuntil afternoon. They spend the heat of the day sitting ontheir nests or perched on branches in the cooler, deeperrecesses of their linear jungle. The last view of them in the morning, as the heat becameintense, or late in the evening, usually revealed them squatted 370 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. on the branches in pairs close together. On moonlightnights however they were active and noisy, and came intothe open to feed. The habit of crouching or settling down onthe perch is very common with the Hoatzins, and it maybe due to the weakness of the feet and toes. I am inclined

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