The pile of half-cured hides gives forth impossible odours at inter-
vals, and from the rafters hang strips of jerked beef in various stages
of ripeness. The presence of so many tame animals, if one may



124 COLOMBIA

include the pets in that category, is not conducive to comfort. The
egret just now is rapping the hides with his foot to encourage the
worms and beetles to come out and furnish him with a meal. A
traveller stopped at the ranch for a short time today and offered to
buy the egret, but its owner, the mistress of the house, not desiring
to sell, asked two gold ounces, and the egret continues to search the
hides for insects. In the evening the roseate spoonbill makes
ridiculous, futile efforts to fly up into a small tree where he prefers
to sleep. His wings have been clipped slightly so that he has to give
up his attempts at flying and, after twenty or thirty vain efforts,
resign himself to the disgrace of being obhged to walk up the inclined
trunk of the tree, which he might much more easily have done in the
first place.
