A Gathering of Birds

by Donald Culross Peattie

  One of the directors of the society, Col. Anthony R. Kuser, who owned a magnificent collection of living pheasants, interested Dr. Beebe in those kingly creatures. Between them the two men worked out plans for an expedition to Asia and the East Indies, where Dr. Beebe was to seek out in its native habitat every species of pheasant in the world. Specimens were to be taken, and eggs and nests; drawings and photographs were to be made, life history notes collected. And, in short, the result planned was a monumental monograph upon this gorgeous family of birds which disputes with parrots and hummingbirds and trogons and birds-of-paradise the royalty of the feathered phylum.

  Col. Kuser acted as patron of the expedition, but the field work was carried out by young Dr. Beebe quite alone. The conditions of travel were often extremely fatiguing and even dangerous; the task of collecting and study was sometimes difficult beyond anything that a bird student in a temperate country has to encounter. His travels took Dr. Beebe to Ceylon and the Himalayas, China, Japan, Java, Borneo, and other regions of southeastern Asia. The story of these labors may be read in a delightful book, Pheasant Jungles, and a popular ornithological account is given in Pheasants—Their Lives and Homes. But the Monographs of the Pheasants (1918) is of course the true scientific result of the arduous labors, and on it Dr. Beebe’s reputation as an ornithologist is firmly founded. It won him the Elliot gold medal of the National Academy of Sciences.

  During the preparation of the monographs, Dr. Beebe had made an exploring trip up the Amazon. He became impressed with the ignorance of tropical bird life, beyond systematic knowledge, prevalent even among scientists. On one occasion it is said, he spent one week under a fruiting tree, simply observing the birds that came to it. As a result of his absorption in tropical life, he planned and put through a field laboratory of tropical investigation in the British Guiana jungle, scene of Waterton’s famous Wanderings. Dr. Beebe marked out one quarter square mile of this forest for intensive exploration. Not a nest was to escape observation, not a beetle or berry that might serve as food to a bird. At the end of a season’s work it seemed that all their efforts, in Dr. Beebe’s words, were “like the scratch of a single dredge along the bottom of an unknown ocean.”

  In 1923, Mr. Harrison Williams, a trustee of the Zoölogical Society, furnished a yacht for exploration of the Galapagos archipelago, whose curious life had awakened in Darwin’s mind the first suggestion of the idea of natural selection. Much undoubtedly remained to be done in this field, and the expedition, headed by Dr. Beebe, cast anchor off these unearthly isles. Only one hundred hours were spent ashore, but many fascinating results were obtained. The record of this delightful sojourn may be read in Galapagos—World’s End, which is rich in ornithological notes.

  A return was planned in the now famous yacht Arcturus, but the scope of the plan widened until it included general oceanographic work on both shores of the two Americas. In this great project Dr. Beebe is still engaged, most recently in Templeton Crocker’s yacht Zaca.

  The hoatzins, of which Dr. Beebe speaks in the following pages, are birds belonging to a single species, which comprises a single genus, family, and sub-order. The skeletal structure is in many ways unique, and so are the soft internal parts, notably the immense gizzard-like, two-lobed crop. The food of the bird is almost entirely leaves!

  But most remarkable of all is the behavior of the young who are able to climb and hang on to limbs not only by their hooked bills and big strong claws, but by the stiff terminals of the wings. They give thereby almost the impression of young arboreal reptiles; the use of the wing-tips recalls to us that the wing of a bird is after all a modified fore-leg, and in many ways the hoatzin young seem to recapitulate fossil Archaeopteryx itself, though the adult is not especially primitive, having been variously considered as related to pheasants, pigeons, rails, and plantain-eaters.

  The name hoatzin, sometimes spelled hoactzin, is derived from a Nahuatl Indian word. The range of this species is in the northern and western portions of South America from Bolivia to Colombia and the Guianas, but especially in the valley of the Amazon.

  HOATZINS AT HOME

  IN NOVEMBER in New York City an Englishman from British Guiana said to me, “Go to the Berbice River, and at the north end of the town of New Amsterdam, in front of Mr. Beckett’s house, you will find hoatzins.” Six months later as I drove along a tropical river road I saw three hoatzins perched on a low thorn bush at the river’s edge in front of a house. And the river was the Berbice, and the house that of Mr. Beckett.

  We took a boat opposite Mr. Beckett’s house, and paddled slowly with the nearly-flood tide up the Berbice River. It was two o’clock, the hottest time of the day. For three miles we drifted past the chosen haunts of the hoatzins. All were perched in the shade, quiet in the intense heat, squatting prostrate or sleepily preening their plumage. Now and then we saw a bird on her nest, always over the water. If she was sitting on eggs she sat close. If young birds were in the nest she half-crouched, or perched on the rim, so that her body cast a shadow over the young.

  The vegetation was not varied. Muckamucka was here and there in the foreground, with an almost solid line of bunduri pimpler or thorn tree. This was the real home of the birds, and this plant forms the background whenever the hoatzin comes to mind. It is a growth which loves the water, and crowds down so that the rising of the tide, whether fresh or brackish, covers the mud in which it stands, so that it appears to be quite as aquatic as the mangrove which, here and there, creeps out alongside it.

  The pimpler bears thorns of the first magnitude, often double, recurved and at such diabolically unexpected places that, like barbed wire, it is impossible to grasp anywhere without drawing blood. Such a chevaux-de-frise would defend a trench against the most courageous regiment. The stems were light gray, greening toward the younger shoots, and the foliage was pleasantly divided into double lines of locust-like leaflets.

  The plants were in full flower,—dainty, upright panicles of wisteria-like pea-blooms, pale violet and white with tiny buds of magenta. A faint, subdued perfume drifted from them through the tangle of branches. The fruit was ripening on many plants, in clusters of green, semi-circular, flat, kidney pods. The low branches stretched gracefully waterwards in long sweeping curves. On these at a fork or at the crossing of two distinct branches, the hoatzins placed their nests, and with the soft-tissued leaflets they packed their capacious crops and fed their young.

  Besides these two plants, which alone may be considered as forming the principal environment, two blooms were conspicuous at this season; a deep-calyxed, round blossom of rich yellow,—an hibiscus, which the Indians called makoe, and from the bark of which they made most excellent rope. The other flower was a vine which crept commonly up over the pimpler trees, regardless of water and thorns, and hung out twin blossoms in profusion, pink and pinkish-white, trumpet-shaped, with flaring lips.

  The mid-day life about this haunt of hoatzins was full of interest. Tody-flycatchers of two species, yellow-breasted and streaked, were the commonest birds, and their little homes, like bits of tide-hung drift, swayed from the tips of the pimpler branches. They dashed to and fro regardless of the heat, and whenever we stopped they came within a foot or two, curiously watching our every motion. Kiskadees hopped along the water’s edge in the shade, snatching insects and occasionally splashing into the water after small fish. Awkward Guinea green herons, not long out of the nest, crept like shadow silhouettes of birds close to the dark water. High overhead, like flecks of jet against the blue sky, the vultures soared. Green dragonflies whirled here and there, and great blue-black bees fumbled in and out of the hibiscus, yellowed with pollen and too busy to stop a second in their day-long labor.

  This little area held very strange creatures as well, some of which we saw even in our few hours’ search. Four-eyed fish skittered over the water, pale as the ghosts of fish, and when quiet, showing only as a pair of bubbly eyes. Still more weird hairy caterpillars wriggled their way through the muddy, brac
kish current—aquatic larvæ of a small moth which I had not seen since I found them in the trenches of Pará.

  The only sound at this time of day was a drowsy but penetrating tr-r-r-r-r-p! made by a green-bodied, green-legged grasshopper of good size, whose joy in life seemed to be to lie lengthwise upon a pimpler branch, and skreek violently at frequent intervals, giving his wings a frantic flutter at each utterance, and slowly encircling the stem.

  In such environment the hoatzin lives and thrives, and, thanks to its strong body odor, has existed from time immemorial in the face of terrific handicaps. The odor is a strong musky one, not particularly disagreeable. I searched my memory at every whiff for something of which it vividly reminded me, and at last the recollection came to me—the smell, delectable and fearfully exciting in former years—of elephants at a circus, and not altogether elephants either, but a compound of one-sixth sawdust, another part peanuts, another of strange animals and three-sixths swaying elephant. That, to my mind, exactly describes the odor of hoatzins as I sensed it among these alien surroundings.

  As I have mentioned, the nest of the hoatzin was invariably built over the water, and we shall later discover the reason for this. The nests were sometimes only four feet above high water, or equally rarely, at a height of forty to fifty feet. From six to fifteen feet included the zone of four-fifths of the nests of these birds. They varied much in solidity, some being frail and loosely put together, the dry, dead sticks which composed them dropping apart almost at a touch. Usually they were as well knitted as a heron’s, and in about half the cases consisted of a recent nest built upon the foundations of an old one. There was hardly any cavity at the top, and the coarse network of sticks looked like a precarious resting place for eggs and an exceedingly uncomfortable one for young birds.

  When we approached a nest, the occupant paid no attention until we actually came close to a branch, or shook it. She then rose, protesting hoarsely, and lifting wings and tail as she croaked. At the last moment, often when only a yard away, she flew off and away to a distance of fifty feet or more. Watching closely, when she realized that we really had intentions on her nest, she returned and perched fifteen or twenty feet away, croaking continually, her mate a little farther off, and all the hoatzins within sight or hearing joining in sympathetic disharmony, all with synchronous lifting of tail and wings at each utterance.

  The voice of the female is appreciably deeper than that of the male, having more of a gurgling character, like one of the notes of a curassow. The usual note of both sexes is an unwritable, hoarse, creaking sound, quite cicada or frog-like.

  Their tameness was astounding, and they would often sit unmoved, while we were walking noisily about, or focusing the camera within two yards. If several were sitting on a branch and one was shot, the others would often show no symptoms of concern or alarm, either at the noise of the gun or the fall of their companion. A hoatzin which may have been crouched close to the slain bird would continue to preen its plumage without a glance downward. When the young had attained their first full plumage it was almost impossible to distinguish them from the older members of the flock except by their generally smaller size.

  But the heart of our interest in the hoatzins centered in the nestlings. Some kind Providence directed the time of our visit, which I chose against the advice of some of the very inhabitants of New Amsterdam. It turned out that we were on the scene exactly at the right time. A week either way would have yielded much poorer results. The nestlings, in seven occupied nests, observed as we drifted along shore, or landed and climbed among the thorns, were in an almost identical stage of development. In fact, the greatest difference in size occurred between two nestlings of the same brood. Their down was a thin, scanty, fuzzy covering, and the flight feathers were less than a half-inch in length. No age would have showed to better advantage every movement of wings or head.

  When a mother hoatzin took reluctant flight from her nest, the young bird at once stood upright and looked curiously in every direction. No slacker he, crouching flat or awaiting his mother’s directing cries. From the moment he was left alone he began to depend upon the warnings and signs which his great beady eyes and skinny ears conveyed to him. Hawks and vultures had swept low over his nest and mother unheeded. Coolies in their boats had paddled underneath with no more than a glance upward. Throughout his week of life, as through his parents’ and their parents’ parents’ lives, no danger had disturbed their peaceful existence. Only for a sudden windstorm such as that which the week before had upset nests and blown out eggs, it might be said that for the little hoatzin chicks life held nothing but siestas and munchings of pimpler leaves.

  But one little hoatzin, if he had any thoughts such as these, failed to count on the invariable exceptions to every rule, for this day the totally unexpected happened. Fate, in the shape of enthusiastic scientists, descended upon him. He was not for a second nonplussed. If we had concentrated upon him a thousand strong, by boats and by land, he would have fought the good fight for freedom and life as calmly as he waged it against us. And we found him no mean antagonist, and far from reptilian in his ability to meet new and unforeseen conditions.

  His mother, who a moment before had been packing his capacious little crop with predigested pimpler leaves, had now flown off to an adjoining group of mangroves, where she and his father croaked to him hoarse encouragement. His flight feathers hardly reached beyond his finger-tips, and his body was covered with a sparse coating of sooty black down. So there could be no resort to flight. He must defend himself, bound to earth like his assailants.

  Hardly had his mother left when his comical head, with thick, blunt beak and large intelligent eyes, appeared over the rim of the nest. His alert expression was increased by the suspicion of a crest on his crown where the down was slightly longer. Higher and higher rose his head, supported on a neck of extraordinary length and thinness. No more than this was needed to mark his absurd resemblance to some strange, extinct reptile. A young dinosaur must have looked much like this, while for all that my glance revealed, I might have been looking at a diminutive Galapagos tortoise. Indeed this simile came to mind often when I became more intimate with nestling hoatzins.

  Sam, my black tree-climber, kicked off his shoes and began creeping along the horizontal limbs of the pimplers. At every step he felt carefully with a calloused sole in order to avoid the longer of the cruel thorns, and punctuated every yard with some gasp of pain or muttered personal prayer, “Pleas’ doan’ stick me, Thorns!”

  At last his hand touched the branch, and it shook slightly. The young bird stretched his mittened hands high above his head and waved them a moment. With similar intent a boxer or wrestler flexes his muscles and bends his body. One or two uncertain, forward steps brought the bird to the edge of the nest at the base of a small branch. There he stood, and raising one wing leaned heavily against the stem, bracing himself. My man climbed higher and the nest swayed violently.

  Now the brave little hoatzin reached up to some tiny side twigs and, aided by the projecting ends of dead sticks from the nest, he climbed with facility, his thumbs and forefingers apparently being of more aid than his feet. It was fascinating to see him ascend, stopping now and then to crane his head and neck far out, turtle-wise. He met every difficulty with some new contortion of body or limbs, often with so quick or so subtle a shifting as to escape my scrutiny. The branch ended in a tiny crotch and here perforce, ended his attempt at escape by climbing. He stood on the swaying twig, one wing clutched tight, and braced himself with both feet.

  Nearer and nearer crept Sam. Not a quiver on the part of the little hoatzin. We did not know it, but inside that ridiculous head there was definite decision as to a deadline. He watched the approach of this great, strange creature—this Danger, this thing so wholly new and foreign to his experience, and doubtless to all the generations of his forbears. A black hand grasped the thorny branch six feet from his perch, and like a flash he played his next trick—the only remaining one he k
new, one that set him apart from all modern land birds, as the frog is set apart from the swallow.

  The young hoatzin stood erect for an instant, and then both wings of the little bird were stretched straight back, not folded, bird-wise, but dangling loosely and reaching well beyond the body. For a considerable fraction of time he leaned forward. Then without effort, without apparent leap or jump he dived straight downward, as beautifully as a seal, direct as a plummet and very swiftly. There was a scarcely-noticeable splash, and as I gazed with real awe, I watched the widening ripples which undulated over the muddy water—the only trace of the whereabouts of the young bird.

  It seemed as if one, whether ornithologist, evolutionist, poet or philosopher could fail to be profoundly impressed at the sight we had seen. Here I was in a very real, a very modern boat, with the honk of motor horns sounding from the river road a few yards away through the bushes, in the shade of this tropical vegetation in the year nineteen hundred and sixteen; and yet the curtain of the past had been lifted and I had been permitted a glimpse of what must have been common in the millions of years ago. It was a tremendous thing, a wonderful thing to have seen, and it seemed to dwarf all the strange sights which had come to me in all other parts of the earth’s wilderness. I had read of these habits and had expected them, but like one’s first sight of a volcano in eruption, no reading or description prepares one for the actual phenomenon.

  I sat silently watching for the re-appearance of the young bird. We tallied five pairs of eyes and yet many minutes passed before I saw the same little head and emaciated neck sticking out of the water alongside a bit of drift rubbish. The only visible thing was the protruding spikes of the bedraggled tail feathers. I worked the boat in toward the bird, half-heartedly, for I had made up my mind that this particular brave little bit of atavism deserved his freedom, so splendidly had he fought for it among the pimplers. Soon he ducked forward, dived out of sight and came up twenty feet away among an inextricable tangle of vines. I sent a little cheer of well wishing after him and we salvaged Sam.