:::::::::^v two BIRD -LOVERS IN MEXICO x^"""" 



camp, a brother fox, with a mouthful of provender, was 

 stealing noiselessly up a loose gravel-bank into thick 

 cover. With any otlier creature the bank would have 

 given way, sending down a shower of sand and dried 

 leaves. In the morning a few dog-padded prints veri- 

 fied my vision of the preceding night, but a breath of 

 air soon blew the li«>ht sand into the tracks — so care- 

 fully does Nature protect her children. And thus was 

 solved the mystery of the mud tracks near the pools. 



Nothing but a fox after all ! Oh, but such a fox ! 

 As different from our Reynard of the North as a lithe 

 greyhound is from a bungling terrier. And when we 

 captured one, he jiroved to be the Guatemalan Silver- 

 gray Fox, and examined by daylight, how diiferent 

 he seemed — slinking, cowering, trembling, begging 

 with fearful eyes for the moment when we should set 

 him free again. For what was his skin to us compared 

 to seeing the convulsive leap of joy with which he 

 returned to his life of wild freedom ! 



The colour of this fox in the broad light of day 

 was very different from what we had supposed it to 

 be. A grizzled silvery gray was the predominant hue, 

 but in the pale, all-absorbing moonlight, no hint of 

 the deep rufous or the black markings was ever to be 

 detected. 



Thus, little by little, we came to know the wild 

 kindred which shared this barranca with us ; like 

 us, drinking of its waters, gazing at the soaring of 



«4 '2'iQ ^ 



