Then the wind subsided, and terrific vivid lightning accompanied by claps of thunder filled the open spaces and the great forest. It rained in torrents and such rain as is only known under the mountainous equatorial regions of that great forest. It stormed and thundered the rest of the day and during almost the whole of the night.
The guanioniens had pressed their feathers close together. Fortunately they were well oiled and the rain ran off over them, so that their skins escaped a drenching.
In spite of the great storm, the guanioniens had short naps, at times being awakened by the vivid lightning and terrific peals of thunder, re-echoed from mountain to mountain.
At daybreak they awoke, and one said, “Dear, we have had a very uncomfortable night, but at this season of the year we shall meet many more of them.” Before leaving their tree for their journey, they made their toilet, and it took them quite a while.
Not only the guanioniens, but all the birds have a bag or pouch just at the end of the spinal column near the tail, full of an oily or fatty soft substance, which they take from the opening with their beak and with which they oil their feathers. The guanioniens had a big one indeed, making a large protuberance.
They began to take the oily substance from their pouches, and their beaks went through almost every feather, these being placed one upon another as shingles on a roof. They were, in a word, combing themselves. When no more oil was left, then they went back to their pouches for more. They had plenty to do, for the heavy rain of the night had taken almost all the oily matter from their feathers. When they had finished they said to each other, “Now our skins are protected against the rain.” It was just as good as if they had had on india-rubber coats.
After their toilets, the guanioniens continued their journey, looking for prey as they went along, soaring after a long time above the place where monkeys were likely to come.
One day they saw and recognized in the distance the giant tree upon which was their nest. They flew toward it and shortly afterward perched upon one of its branches with much satisfaction.
Looking at their nest, the big guanionien said to his mate: “Dear, our nest requires much repairing: it is terribly weather-beaten; it is getting quite old, and soon we shall have to make a new one. We have raised many little guanioniens in this dear old nest of ours, two or three at a time. Since we mated we have been true and faithful to each other, for we guanioniens always keep true to our mates. What care these little ones have given us! How we have had to protect them with our wings from cold and from the rain! How hard we have had to work to feed them, and to raise them until they could get a living for themselves! I wonder where they all are now, and if they sometimes think of their parents.”