;:::::::»v TWO BIRD-LOVERS IN MEXICO Sfe"""" 



billed Thrashers and Mockmgbu-ds and occasionally 

 a White-rumped Shrike. All three species, when nnmo- 

 lested, flew to the ground and fed greedily on a kind of 

 black ant which covered the earth in areat hordes in 

 certain sharply defined areas. This seemed an unusual 

 habit of the shrikes, which are generally strictly arbo- 

 real. Winding through deep crevices worn through 

 old lava flows, we came at last to the edge of the Bar- 

 ranca Atenqidqid ( Atenke'ke), and the view before us 

 banished all the disap])ointment which the barrenness 

 of the desert behind us had aroused. The deep gorge 

 at our feet is bright and green, and at the bottom the 

 dense semi-tropical foliage almost conceals the white- 

 rippled stream which rushes along. A turn in the 

 harraiiva, some little distance to the right, frames 

 the volcano scpiarely between the two walls, and from 

 the gorge to the edge of the gray, impassable, live 

 lava, extends a verdant " Promised Land," to roam 

 throu<»h which we were as eajrer as were the horses 

 for the cool stream below. 



This side of the harranca, however, is steep and 

 rocky, and the way to the bottom is treacherous and 

 slow. The sure-footed nudes felt their way at each 

 step, and we leaned far back against the rear pommel 

 of the great saddles, the shoulders of the horses work- 

 ing laboriously, the animals hanging back in the steep 

 places. AVith a flnal reckless rush we tore down the 

 last slope, shouting out in English and Spanish with 



«4 I'JO -^ 



