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motionless, uttered their ringing calls from the dark stillness of the
columned groves. The hillsides were grassy pastures or else covered
with low, open forest.

A huge frog, brown above, with a light streak down each side, was
found hiding under some sticks in a damp place in one of the
improvised kitchens; and another frog, with disks on his toes, was
caught on one of the tents. A coral-snake puzzled us. Some coral-
snakes are harmless; others are poisonous, although not aggressive.
The best authorities give an infallible recipe for distinguishing them
by the pattern of the colors, but this particular specimen, although
it corresponded exactly in color pattern with the description of the
poisonous snakes, nevertheless had no poison-fangs that even after the
most minute examination we could discover. Miller and one of the dogs
caught a sariema, a big, long-legged, bustard-like bird, in rather a
curious way. We were on the march, plodding along through as heavy a
tropic downpour as it was our ill fortune to encounter. The sariema,
evidently as drenched and uncomfortable as we were, was hiding under a
bush to avoid the pelting rain. The dog discovered it, and after the
bird valiantly repelled him, Miller was able to seize it. Its stomach
contained about half a pint of grass-hoppers and beetles and young
leaves. At Vilhena there was a tame sariema, much more familiar and at
home than any of the poultry. It was without the least fear of man or
dog. The sariema (like the screamer and the curassow) ought to be
introduced into our barnyards and on our lawns, at any rate in the
Southern States; it is a good-looking, friendly, and attractive bird.
Another bird we met is in some places far more intimate, and
domesticates itself. This is the pretty little honey-creeper. In
Colombia Miller found the honey-creepers habitually coming inside the
houses and hotels at meal-times, hopping about the table, and climbing
into the sugar-bowl.

Along this part of our march there was much of what at a hasty glance
seemed to be volcanic rock; but Oliveira showed me that it was a kind
of conglomerate, with bubbles or hollows in it, made of sand and iron-
bearing earth. He said it was a superficial quaternary deposit formed
by erosion from the cretaceous rocks, and that there were here no
tertiary deposits. He described the geological structure of the lands
through which we had passed as follows: The pantanals were of
Pleistocene age. Alo