TWO BIRD-LOVEES 

 IN MEXICO 



CHAPTER I 



WAVES OF THE SEA 



[T was the evening of the seventeenth of 

 December when our steamer passed Lib- 

 erty Statue. A sleety storm drove us 

 into our cabin, where we delved for the 

 hundredth time into our much-thumbed bird-books, 

 strivinsf to make real to our imao'ination the birds we 

 hoped to see, and to attune our ears to the sibilant 

 tones of the Spanish tong-ue — the language of the 

 country whither we were bound — Mexico, the land of 

 the Cactus and the Caracara. 



There is one joy of reading, another of painting, 

 and another of writing, but none to compare with the 

 thrill which comes to one who, loving Nature in all 

 her moods, is about to start on a voyage of discovery 

 to a land familiar to him in dreams alone. 



<4- 1 -^ 



