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



Most of our hunting was done with cameras and 

 glasses, and this kind of sport proved fully as exciting 

 and required infinitely more skill than the simple level- 

 ling of a gun. 



We had not long to wait ; the birds came thick and 

 fast ; the insects whirred by our tent ; lizards rustled 

 among the leaves. Indeed, for a time we hardly took 

 notice of any details, so disconcerting were the impres- 

 sions of constantly appearing forms, ncAV and strange. 



The sand-bars in front of our camp were seldom 

 untenanted for more than an hour by one or two 

 species of birds — both old friends. The first note to 

 greet us came from one of these sand-spits, Kill -dee ! 

 Kill-dee ! and there a pair of beautiful Kill deer Plov- 

 ers stood watching us, their belted breasts of black and 

 white bobbing cheerfully, bringing to mind the mud- 

 flats of Fundy, the dry uplands of Virginia. Where 

 indeed do not the notes of this handsome bird pene- 

 trate ? Here from late January on, the Killdeers were 

 moving restlessly downstream, passing slowly day after 

 day in pairs or small flocks. At first we thought the 

 same individuals rea])peared each day, but Avhen occa- 

 sionally our larder ran short and we shot a half-dozen, 

 the following day Killdeers in equal numbers were 

 running about. This slow migration, or at least very 

 regular wandering, is shared by another species — the 

 Solitary Sandpipers; little waders not wisely named, 

 at least in this land, for wherever we saw them they 



" <i- 13-1 h 



