In the Wilds of South America

by Leo E. Miller

The lagoon in the Chaco, Embarcacion.

Paramo above Tafí.

The most beautiful of all South American birds’ eggs are laid by the tinamou. They are placed in a depression in the ground, usually under a tuft of grass or near a log or stone. Their color varies in the different species, running through turquoise and deep blue, lavender, brown, green, and gold. The shape is rounded or broadly ovate and the shell is very smooth so that it glows like a varnished or highly polished sphere. In spite of the glossy texture of the surface, minute scrutiny will reveal the fact that it is pitted like that of the eggs of the rhea to which the tinamou are closely related.

We saw a fox occasionally, slinking across a trail and always well out of gun-range. Each morning there were tracks of cats and large cavies in the dusty paths, but mammals were scarce and few came to our traps.

There were no mosquitoes during the day, and only enough at night to make the use of a net desirable. Sand-flies, however, often appeared in considerable numbers and were troublesome. The climate was intolerably hot during the greater part of our stay. Each day the thermometer rose a few degrees higher until we found even the lightest and scantiest amount of clothing uncomfortable; all through the long afternoons we sat shirtless with streams of perspiration pouring down our backs, preparing the specimens that spoiled within a few hours unless properly preserved. About every fourth or fifth day the weather broke and a deluge of rain falling throughout the afternoon and night brought with it a lowered temperature and welcome respite from the oppressive heat.

Our greatest problem was dealing with the hosts of small red ants that persisted in getting at our specimens. We kept the latter on a table the legs of which stood in tin cans half full of kerosene; but a trailing thread, a piece of paper blown by the wind, or any one of a dozen other trivial things that happened daily furnished bridges over which the insatiable hordes promptly swarmed to destroy our hard-gotten trophies.

We next headed toward Tucuman and upon our arrival there were pleased to find a city of sixty thousand inhabitants, delightful from practically every point of view. The people were particularly interesting. We saw few of them on the streets during the daytime, but in the late afternoon after the shops and offices had closed and bolted their doors, the men appeared in crowds, all well and neatly dressed. They congregated in the saloons and cafés fringing the plaza, and drank beer and small cups of strong, black coffee until about seven o’clock. In many instances the tables were arranged on both sides of the pavement so that one walked through a lane between rows of sleek-combed youths twirling gaudily banded straw hats or canes, and noisily discussing—what-not, and grave-faced men with gray hair and beards everlastingly talking politics. After going home to supper they reappeared with the womenfolk, the wealthier ones circling about the plaza in carriages or motor-cars, the less opulent afoot. The band played every other night.

The great Province of Tucuman, of which the city bearing the same name is the capital, is one of the most fertile in all Argentina. Its principal products are sugar, rice, and cattle. Land values are high—too high in some cases, but it cannot be denied that there is good reason for the rapidly rising scale of prices.

In Tucuman we found the chief of police a hard proposition to handle when it came to securing the hunting-license. To begin with, we had great difficulty in entering his sanctuary. The door was guarded by a mammoth negro who rushed into the inner chamber each time the intendente rang for him. First he always jerked a huge club out from under his coat—ready perhaps to take the first whack at the official if some one started anything, instead of defending him. Finally we succeeded in entering the holy of holies, and found a small, rather elderly man sitting behind a large, flat desk, sipping tea while several secretarios hopped wildly about him and yelled into an ear-trumpet held in position by one of his hands. He failed utterly to understand our request, and curtly refused to have anything to do with any millinery establishment. We argued in vain, then retired to think of some new move, for the permit was necessary if we wished to keep out of jail, and I must admit that such was our ardent desire.