One evening we caught sight of a tapi (tapir) coming down to drink, but were unable to shoot on account of the bad light.  Each day we saw many wild pigs ("chancho moro”) and various kinds of wild cats, including the splendid “gato once” or ounce cat, whose skin is one of the finest, and only to be compared with the “lobo” or golden otter, which has a most magnificent fluffy pelt with a golden tint on the tips.  The latter is unfortunately getting very rare now.

The great wolf or “aguaras” is still common, and is a very stately beast, as he slopes along with his hind-quarters well under him, with pricked ears and shaggy black mane.

The forests here are mostly in long strips and clumps, with excellent pasture land between them; and they contain, among other commoner chaco trees, lance wood, four crowns, and tala.  Amongst the strange trees there is one enormous broad-leafed tree called “guapoij,” which has long creeping roots, which cling on to neighbouring trees and gradually pull them down and absorb all their goodness, killing them, and in some marvellous way apparently eating them up.  One finds occasionally one of these trees embracing another bigger than itself, and gradually rooting it out of the ground.

On all low ground one generally finds “Zeibos”—­a tree with very soft wood and very pretty branches of scarlet flowers.

The wild apricot or “ijguajay” grows everywhere, and looks a very tempting fruit, fatal, however, to most Europeans, as it is a very powerful purge.  The Indian children eat the fruit with joy, and it apparently has no bad effect on them.

The forests are full of all kinds of animals, and, in addition to those already mentioned, there are red deer, black and brown monkeys, and bear, and the ring-tailed coons, which latter make noises like the grunting of pigs.

Of ground game there are foxes, tattoo or mulita, armadillo, and ostriches.

Amongst the birds the most common are various kinds of hawks, including some very much like the great bustard, English brown buzzard, and osprey falcon, and two or three kinds of parrots and cockatoos, the green parrots being the curse to agriculturists, eating all the maize, as the locusts do in the South.

There are many different kinds of “carpinteros” or woodpeckers, most of them having most wonderful plumage of brown, green, scarlet, blue, and yellow.

A strange bird which is not often seen is the “tucan,” a small black bird, with a beak almost as big as his body, and of a splendid orange colour with a scarlet tip; he is a top-heavy looking little chap when seen seated on an orange tree, his favourite haunt.