We camped at the foot of the rapids we had just passed.  There were many small birds here, but it was extremely difficult to see or shoot them in the lofty tree tops, and to find them in the tangle beneath if they were shot.  However, Cherrie got four species new to the collection.  One was a tiny hummer, one of the species known as woodstars, with dainty but not brilliant plumage; its kind is never found except in the deep, dark woods, not coming out into the sunshine.  Its crop was filled with ants; when shot it was feeding at a cluster of long red flowers.  He also got a very handsome trogon and an exquisite little tanager, as brilliant as a cluster of jewels; its throat was lilac, its breast turquoise, its crown and forehead topaz, while above it was glossy purple-black, the lower part of the back ruby-red.  This tanager was a female; I can hardly imagine that the male is more brilliantly colored.  The fourth bird was a queer hawk of the genus ibycter, black, with a white belly, naked red cheeks and throat and red legs and feet.  Its crop was filled with the seeds of fruits and a few insect remains; an extraordinary diet for a hawk.

The morning of the 16th was dark and gloomy.  Through sheets of blinding rain we left our camp of misfortune for another camp where misfortune also awaited us.  Less than half an hour took our dugouts to the head of the rapids below.  As Kermit had already explored the left-hand side, Colonel Rondon and Lyra went down the right-hand side and found a channel which led round the worst part, so that they deemed it possible to let down the canoes by ropes from the bank.  The distance to the foot of the rapids was about a kilometre.  While the loads were being brought down the left bank, Luiz and Antonio Correa, our two best watermen, started to take a canoe down the right side, and Colonel Rondon walked ahead to see anything he could about the river.  He was accompanied by one of our three dogs, Lobo.  After walking about a kilometre he heard ahead a kind of howling noise, which he thought was made by spider-monkeys.  He walked in the direction of the sound and Lobo ran ahead.  In a minute he heard Lobo yell with pain, and then, still yelping, come toward him, while the creature that was howling also approached, evidently in pursuit.  In a moment a second yell from Lobo, followed by silence, announced that he was dead; and the sound of the howling when near convinced Rondon that the dog had been killed by an Indian, doubtless with two arrows.  Probably the Indian was howling to lure the spider-monkeys toward him.  Rondon fired his rifle in the air, to warn off the Indian or Indians, who in all probability had never seen a civilized man, and certainly could not imagine that one was in the neighborhood.  He then returned to the foot of the rapids, where the portage was still going on, and, in company with Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Parecis, the Indian, walked back to where Lobo’s body lay.  Sure enough he found him, slain by two arrows.  One arrow-head was in him, and near by was a strange stick used in the very primitive method of fishing of all these Indians.  Antonio recognized its purpose.  The Indians, who were apparently two or three in number, had fled.  Some beads and trinkets were left on the spot to show that we were not angry and were friendly.