:::::::::*; TWO BIRD- LOVERS IN MEXICO B:"""" 



this din, the liquid, chain-like melody of the Solitaire 

 held true, cutting* through the macaws' terrific cries 

 like a shaft of clear lioht throu""h the darkness. Two 

 bird voices more antithetical probably do not exist, 

 and the birds themselves present as strong a contrast, 

 — the gray thrush with its delicate bill opened ever 

 so little, and the gaudy green nuicaws, scarlet fronted, 

 with huge yellow mandibles wide agape ! 



All passed in a moment, but our glance remained 

 upward, and far up, across the narrow strip of blue sky 

 which roofed the arroijo, two vultures and a Caracara 

 Eagle })assed in their circling Hight. A Black Hawk, 

 which had been perched in a niche of the clilf, now 

 took to wiuir with an cclioino; crv ; a White-fronted 

 Dove wliirred past our resting-})lace ; and a velvety 

 Ileliconia butterfly waved its way slowly up the defile. 

 Then a great peace settled over the little shut-in bit of 

 world, and for many minutes we s<it there, marvelling 

 upon the beauty and wonder of it all. 



Far up in these isolated defiles we found that the 

 trogons spent their days, while at night, as we had 

 seen, they came to the river to drink, and roosted not 

 far from its waters. The habits of the White-fronted 

 Doves were almost the reverse of this, as we suspected 

 when we noticed the flocks passing at evening up into 

 the lower arroyo. 



As we made our way up the arroyo, we were hardly 

 conscious of the gradual ascent, but a steep climb to the 



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