The country back of Calama is high and undulating, so that it remains untouched by the water that covers the lowlands during the wet season. A small space which had been cleared around the building was covered with a fine growth of grass and low bushes, and served as pasture for a few head of cattle; small birds, such as flycatchers, grass-finches, and tanagers teemed in the opening, and many thick-billed green parrots squawked in the tree-tops at the edge of the forest. A short distance below the landing there was an extensive swamp and many small brush-covered islands; masses of aquatic plants floated in the quiet, open pools, conspicuous among which was the beautiful _Victoria regia_, with leaves four feet in diameter. In the dense, tangled vegetation that grew out of the black depths of the murky swamp-water we found flocks of _hoatzins_, or lizard-birds, curious archaic creatures which retain some of the characteristics of their reptilian ancestors; they are about the size of a pheasant, of an olive color above and yellowish below; a high crest crowns the head, and they possess only a limited power of flight. It was the height of the nesting-season, and many of the fragile platforms of sticks contained two or three yellowish eggs, heavily spotted with reddish-brown; the wings of the young are provided with long, sharp claws which enable them to climb about over the branches like lizards; hence their name. All travelling through the swamp had to be done in a canoe; and pushing the dugout through the almost solid mass of branches and creepers was a difficult task. Every twig seemed to swarm with small red ants, called fire-ants, on account of the intense burning sensation produced by their bites, and they were constantly dropping upon us in scores. Several times we blundered into _maribundi_ nests, and in each instance the outraged wasps promptly retaliated. Large _iguanas_ jumped out of the trees into the water with a loud splash as we passed underneath, and troops of woolly monkeys deserted the wild cashew-trees in which they fed and beat a hasty retreat. The swamp was full of life, but we rarely recovered anything we shot; the caymans and _piranhas_ with which the water was infested usually snapped up our specimens before we could reach them. At night we set throw-lines and caught the great _pacu_, a fish of the _piranha_ family; but unlike its bloodthirsty relative it prefers a vegetable diet. A _pirarucú_, six feet long and weighing two hundred and fifty pounds, was also taken; this is the largest fish that inhabits Amazonian waters; the scales are an inch and a half in diameter and of a silvery color, those of the latter half of the body being margined with deep scarlet. It is delicious, either fresh or salted.