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Cornugaya Directory 08
Page 05
Sir Roger Casement, of Putumayo atrocities fame, whom I had the pleasure
of meeting at Manaos, possessed a most beautiful specimen of the
_Macrocerus hyacinthinus_. It was most touching to see the pathetic
devotion which existed between master and bird and _vice versa_. Only the
people of the hotel where we both stayed did not appreciate the
magnificent blue-black visitor, for when its master was out it spent all
its time chipping off pieces from tables and chairs, and took the
greatest pride and delight in flinging forks, knives and spoons off the
dining-room tables, and tearing the menus to strips. The Brazilian
waiters, in their caution to maintain their own anatomy intact, did not
dare go near it; for the bird, even on hearing remarks made on its
behaviour, would let itself down the sides of chairs and defiantly
proceed to attack the intruders.
The trees, overcrowded everywhere, far from being gigantic, are, instead,
mean-looking and anaemic--not unlike the pallid, overgrown youth of the
over-populated slums of a great city. Orchids? Yes, there are plenty of
orchids about, but you never see them unless you go on a special search
for them with a high ladder or some other such means of climbing high
trees. In any case, you would not detect them unless you had the eye of
an expert. It is well not to forget that in tropical climates, as in
temperate zones, plants are not always in bloom when you happen to be
passing. As for the butterflies, you seldom see any at all in the actual
forest.
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