THE “MOST BEAUTIFUL BIRD.”
AMERICAN EXPEDITION FINDS IT A GORGEOUS FLAME COLOUR. The obtaining of six specimens of “the most beautiful bird in the world, the Cock of the Rock, in a remote region along the Brazil- Venezuela bor- j der, has been reported to the headquarters of the National Geogi aphical Society, Washington, by Ernest G. | Holt, leader of an expedition which has been collecting .natural material for the society in South America.
• The remarkable bird, which ha,s been seen alive, by but few travellers, i* described by Mr Holt as a “most gorgeous creature, orange or flame coloured, with a, double crest, and to my mind the most beautiful bird in the world.” The beauty is concentrated in the male, Mr Holt reports, for in few bird species is there a more striking contrast between the re-splendent cock and the very drab and demure female. In size the Cock of the Rock is between a robin and a crow. Mr Holt and his ■assistants hare been travelling by special permission with the joint ,B ra zi 1i a n-Ve tie zuel an Boundary Commission, which is surveying the line separating the two countries. The region under survey lies approximately 50 miles north of the equator and east of the Rio Negro, near the, famous “Casiquiare Canal,” a river that flows in two directions and connects the waters of the Orinoco and the Amazon systems. .
In order to reach the frontier Mr HAH, and the, R azi'hn commissioners fought they way for 22 days by boat up 50 miles of almost continuous rapids in the Cauabury and Maturaca Rivers. The latter stream is little more than a creek, obstructed by fallen trees, Mr Holt reports, but up it the small army of native helpers of the commission dragged a large motor boat, hacking a way with axes andi machetes through the log jams. Around them camp at Salto do Hua, on the Brazil-Venezuela border, the_ boundary commission and Mr Holt’s party found monkeys so numerous that the meat of the animals was made a regular item on their menu. They also shot curaSsows or bush turkeys. The Cock of the Rock was after the camp was moved' eastward from the Rio Maturaca to ,the foothill s of the Sierra Imeri, a long tortuous, and little-known range of mountains that
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Hokitika Guardian, 17 August 1931, Page 8
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390THE “MOST BEAUTIFUL BIRD.” Hokitika Guardian, 17 August 1931, Page 8
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