;:::::;:afg THE HOT LANDS OF THE PACIFIC m::::::;:: 



beautiful birds, and when their plump, fawn-coloured 

 forms would go humming away, brightened with three 

 (almost) semicircles of white on wings and tail, the eye 

 was delighted. 



A sharp chut ! came from my very feet and up sprang 

 a bird, also with three flashes of white, but on noise- 

 less pinions. It sailed about in a low, narrow circle and 

 plumped suddenly down among the dead leaves, fifteen 

 feet away. It was a Parauque, a strange name for a 

 strange bird ! It has the white wing-bars of a night- 

 hawk, but its general colouration and actions are more 

 those of a whij>poor-will. The marbled and mottled 

 plumage of these ground birds is as beautiful as it is 

 indescribable. A woodcock has similar patterns. It 

 is the feathered essence of dead leaves, moss, bits of 

 fungi, broken twigs, decayed Avood and lichens. Par- 

 auques were very abundant in this locality, and we sel- 

 dom took a walk without flushing a dozen or more. 

 The actions of the one which I aroused in the tangle 

 were typical of all. It almost invariably faced me each 

 time it alighted, holding its head low, and thus hiding 

 the white throat. The dark, lustrous eyes closed until 

 they became two narrow slits. As I flushed it again 

 and again, it once or twice alighted broadside toward 

 me, but at my next movement toward the bird, it 

 bounced up like a ball and oriented itself. The bird 

 refused to leave the tangle, preferring to rise and 

 settle a score of times, as I crossed and recrossed the 



<4 301 h> 



