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The birds were tame, even those striking and beautiful birds which under man's persecution are so apt to become scarce and sly. The huge jaribu storks, stalking though the water with stately dignity, sometimes refused to fly until we were only a hundred yards off; one of them flew over our heads at a distance of thirty of fourty yards. The screamers, crying curu-curu, and the ibises, wailing dolefully, came even closer. The wonderful hyacinth macaws, in twos and threes, accompanied us at times for serveral hundred yards, however over our heads and uttering their rasping screams. In on wood we came on the black howler monkey. The place smelt almost like a menageric. Not watching with sufficient care I brushed against a sapling on which the venomous fire-ants swarmed. They burnt the skin like red-hot cinders, and left little sores. More than once in the drier parts of the marsh we met small caymans making their way from one pool to amother. My horse stepped over one before I saw it. The dead carcasses of other showed that on their wanderings they had encountered jaguars or human foes.
We had been out about three hours when one of the dogs gave tongue in a large belt of woodland and jungle to the left of our line of march. The other dogs ran to the sound, and after az while the long barking told that the thing , whatever it was, was at bay or else in some refuge. We made our way toward the place on foot. The dogs were baying excitedly at the mouth of a huge hollow log, and very short examination showed us that there were two peccaries within, doubtless a boar and sow...
Keywords:
Through the Brazilian Wilderness, Theodore Roosevelt, Screamers, Curu-Coru, Ibises, Fire-ants, Caymans, Peccaries,
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Book Details |
• Pages: 428
• Endnotes: No
• Appendix: No
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• LCCN No.: 2002100338
• Original ISBN: 1-931839-56-5
• Edition type: Reprint
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