two or three types that were welcome. The butterflies were really wonderful. I shall never forget the spectacle in certain places on the Unknown River where great azure blue butterflies would fly about up and down through the glade or over the river. Some of the noises made by in- 5 sects were extraordinary. One insect similar to a katydid made a noise that ended with a sound like a steamboat whistle.

We found the mosquitoes bad in only two or three places. On the Paraguay marshes there were practically no mos- 10 quitoes. In that great marsh country where I should suppose mosquitoes would swarm, there were scarcely any. Our trouble was chiefly with gnats. These little flies were at times a serious nuisance. We had to wear gauntlets and helmets and we had to tie the bottom of our trouser legs. 15 When we stopped on one occasion to build canoes, two or three of our camaradas were so crippled with the bites of the gnats that they could hardly walk. The wasps

and stinging bees were also very obnoxious and at times fairly dangerous. There were ants we called foraging 20 ants that moved in dense columns and killed every living thing that could not get out of the way. If an animal is picketed in the line of march of these foraging ants, they are likely to kill it in short time.

There is also a peculiar ant called the leaf ant which 25 doesn't eat a man but devours his possessions instead. I met with a tragedy one night myself. We had come down the Unknown River and had lost two or three canoes and had to portage whatever we had over the mountain. We had to throw away everything that was not absolutely 30 necessary. I reduced my own baggage to one change of clothing. We got into camp late and Cherrie and I had

our two cots close together and did not get the fly up until after dark. My helmet had an inside lining of green and I had worn a red handkerchief around my neck. At night I put my spectacles and the handkerchief in the 5 hat. The next morning I looked out of bed preparing to get my spectacles. I saw a red and green line. It was moving. There was a procession of these leaf-bearing ants with sections of my handkerchief and hat. I had had one spare pair of socks and one spare set of underclothing and 10 I needed them both. By morning I had part of one sock and the leg and waistband of the underwear and that was all. It is amusing to look back at but it was not amusing at the time.

The most interesting fish that we became acquainted 15 with was called the "cannibal fish,” "the "man-eating fish." It is about the size of our shad with a heavily undershot jaw and very sharp teeth. So far as I know, it is the only fish in the world that attacks singly or in shoals animals much larger than itself. Cannibal fishes 20 swarm in most of the rivers of the region we passed through, in most places not very dangerous, in others having the custom of attacking man or animals, so that it is dangerous for anyone to go into the water. Blood maddens them. If a duck is shot, they will pull it to pieces 25 in a very few minutes.

This side of Corumba a boy who had been in swimming was attacked in midstream by these fishes and before relief could get to him, he had not only been killed but half eaten. Two members of our party suffered from them. 30 Colonel Rondon after carefully examining a certain spot in the river went into the water and one of these fishes bit off his little toe. On another occasion on the Unknown

River, Mr. Cherrie went into the water thinking he could take his bath right near shore and one of the fish bit a piece out of his leg.

One of the most extraordinary things we saw was this. On one occasion one of us shot a crocodile. It rushed 5 back into the water. The fish attacked it at once and they drove that crocodile out of the water back to the men on the bank. It was less afraid of the men than the fish.

We were interested one day in a certain big catfish, 10 like any other big catfish except that it had a monkey inside of it. I had never heard that a catfish could catch monkeys but it proved to be a fact. The catfish lives at the bottom of the water. The monkeys come down on the ends of branches to drink and it seems to be no un- 15 common thing for the fish to come to the surface and attack the monkey as it stoops to drink. Our Brazilian friends told us that in the Amazon there is a gigantic catfish nine feet long. The natives are more afraid of it than of the crocodile because the crocodile can be seen 20 but the catfish is never seen until too late. In the villages, poles are stacked in the water so that women can get their jars filled with water, these stockades of poles keeping out the giant crocodile and catfish. I had never seen in any book any allusions to the fact that there is 25 a man-eating fish of this type in the Amazon.

One day when we were going down the Unknown River Mr. Cherrie and I in the same canoe, we saw a flying fish. Of course everyone knows about the flying fish on the ocean but I had no idea there were flying fish on the 30 South American streams. I very much wish that some ichthyologist would go down to South America and come

back with not not only a collection of the fishes but also full notes on their life histories.

10 gerous.

We did not see very many snakes, I suppose only about twenty venomous ones. The most venomous are 5 those somewhat akin to our rattle-snakes but with no rattles. One of the most common is the jararaca, known in Martinique as the fer-de-lance. One of the biggest is called the bushmaster and attains a length of about ten feet. These snakes are very poisonous and very danThe mussurama is another South American snake, and it lives on poisonous snakes. It habitually kills and eats dangerous reptiles, its most common prey being the jararaca. I saw the feat performed at a laboratory where poisonous snakes are being studied to secure 15 antidotes to the poisons and to develop enemies to the snakes themselves. Such an enemy is this mussurama which must be like our king snake-but larger. The king snake is a particularly pleasant snake; it is friendly toward mankind, not poisonous and can be handled 20 freely. The scientists at the laboratory brought out a big good-natured mussurama which I held between my arm and coat. Then they brought out a fairly large fer-delance about nine inches shorter than the mussurama and warning me to keep away, put it on the table. Then they 25 told me to put my snake where it could get at the fer-delance. I put down my snake on the table and it glided up toward the coiled fer-de-lance. My snake was perfectly free from excitement and I did not suppose it meant to do anything, that it was not hungry. It put its "nose" 30 against the body of the fer-de-lance and moved toward the head. The fer-de-lance's temper was aroused and it coiled and struck. The return blow was so quick that

I could not see just what happened. The mussurama had the fer-de-lance by the lower jaw, the mouth wide open. The latter struck once again. After that it made no further effort to defend itself in any way. The poisonous snake is a highly specialized creature and practically helpless 5 when once its peculiarly specialized traits are effectively nullified by an opponent. The mussurama killed the snake and devoured it by the simple process of crawling outside of it. Many snakes will not eat if people interfere with them, but the mussurama had no prejudices in this 10 respect. We wanted to take a photograph of it while eating, so I took both snakes up and had them photographed against a white cloth while the feast went on uninterruptedly.

Birds and mammals interested me chiefly, however. I 15 am only an amateur ornithologist but I saw a great deal there that would be of interest to any of us who care for birds. For instance there are two hundred and thirteen families of birds very plentiful there, either wholly unknown to us, or at least very few of them known.

20

The most conspicuous birds I saw were members of the family of tyrant flycatchers, like our kingbird, great crested flycatcher and wood pewee. All are birds that perch and swoop for insects. One species, the bientevido, is a big bird like our kingbird, but fiercer and more power- 25 ful than any northern kingbird. One day I saw him catching fish and little tadpoles and also I found that he would sometimes catch small mice. Another kind of tyrant, the red-backed tyrant, is a black bird with reddish on the middle of the back. We saw this species first out on the 30 bare Patagonian plains. It runs fast over the ground exactly like our pippit or longspur.