Ch. XYI.] ABUNDANCE OF HAWKS. 257 



As I have said, when satisfied of our good faith, the 

 inule owners soon offered us the use of their beasts, and 

 next morning Velasquez and I started at seven o'clock 

 on two fine fresh mules and rode merrily up the valley 

 of the Depilto. The river rises in the high ranges that 

 form the boundary between Honduras and Nicaragua, and 

 running down past Depilto joins the Ocotal river a little 

 below the capital. Our road lay up the valley close to 

 the river, which we crossed and recrossed several times. 

 The vegetation was scanty, but the morning was a lovely 

 one after the thunderstorm of the night before, and we 

 greatly enjoyed our ride. We did not see many birds, a 

 pretty hawk that I shot being the most noticeable. 

 Hawks of various kinds are very abundant in the tropics, 

 and if the small birds had to personify death, they would 

 certainly represent him as a hawk, for this is the form in 

 which he must generally appear to them. Towards eve- 

 ning the hawk glides noiselessly along and alights on a 

 bough near, where he hears the small birds twittering 

 amongst the bushes. Perhaps they see him and are 

 quiet for a little, but he sits motionless as the sphinx, 

 and they soon get over their fear and resume their play 

 or feeding. Then suddenly a dark mass swoops down 

 and rises again. It is the hawk, with a small bird grasped 

 in his strong talons gasping out its last breath. Its 

 comrades are terror-struck for a moment and dash madly 

 into the thickets, but soon forget their fear. They chirp 

 to each other, the scattered birds reunite ; there is a 

 fluttering and twittering, a rearranging of mates, then 

 again songs, feeding, love, jealousy, and bickerings. 



The banks of the river were sandy and sterile, and the 

 soil contained much small quartz. The bed rock was a 



