Injured Ornithologists To Return To America Before Thanksgiving

The three Harvard ornithologists injured by natives in Ecuador last week will return to the United States before Thanksgiving.

Raymond A. Paynter, curator of birds at the Museum of Comparative Zoology and his wife have been released from the hospital in Cuenca, Ecuador. They will fly to New York Thursday night and spend a few days with their family in Hamden, Connecticut, before returning to Cambridge.

David W. Norton '66, now in Quito, says that he is "very eager to return to Cambridge" and expects to fly to Boston November 24.

In a 4000-mile ham-radio interview last week, Norton said that he has not made specific plans to return to Ecuador, but that he is certainly not afraid to go back. The Paynters have not announced their plans.

James M. Jacobs, president of J. August Co. in Harvard Square, has been making daily ham-radio contacts to Ecuador since the machete attack in the jungle near Cuenca, November 6. Jacobs has arranged conversations for the three ornithologists with their families.

According to the American Embassy at Quito, 20 natives have confessed their roles in the attack. More arrests are possible.

The natives, who had been drinking heavily, thought the researchers were government officials who had come to take their land away. They ripped right through the tent in which the Paynters were sleeping.

After his pistol charged with birdshot failed to stop he attackers, Norton ran six miles through the jungle in bare feet to obtain help. The natives had intended to kill, and they only abandoned their attack because they thought the Paynters were dead.

It took four hours to transport the victims by bus to the hospital at Cuenca. Norton was treated for minor cuts and released, but the Paynters were admitted in serious condition.