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



lowlands, but here they made up in full measure for 

 this silence ! The call of the loon is weird, the coyote's 

 voice most lonesome, but, for pure diabolical utterances, 

 commend me to the Lauohino- Falcon and the Chaclia- 

 laca, the acquaintance of both of which birds we made 

 early one morning-. We were forcing our way through 

 a dense swamp, miles back in the jungle. The finest 

 ferns I ever saw stretched high above us, their lace- 

 work fronds six and eight feet from the ground. Huge 

 elephant ears, several feet across, sprouted from the 

 black oozing ground, and many odours, spicy and aro- 

 matic, filled the air. The delicate growths of filament- 

 ous algie beneath the surface of the water looked as 

 if nothing had disturbed their green thread-like leaves 

 for years. 



Few birds were here and no liunimin<r of insects 

 was audible. The steaming air was so heavy with 

 pungent earth and swamp smells that one imagined 

 that all low sounds were deadened and lost. Here and 

 there a dry hummock rose from the swamp, covered with 

 short lawn-like grass and jrreat running vines of con- 

 volvulus. From one of these a Boat-billed Heron flew 

 up, with a croak. Another parody of Nature and this 

 time on our Night Heron ! In voice, actions, and flight 

 this tropical bird is an exact copy of our large-eyed 

 nocturnal heron, but its broad, flat bill is as different 

 as is the bill of a gannet from that of a pelican. 



This ])ird was fearless and perched near by in full 



- «4 .S^24 ^ 



