:::::::::C NEAR THE TWIN VOLCANOS m::::::::: 



wanted. The poor little half-starved creatures rushed 

 at the food and ate and ate until I liardly thought that 

 they would survive their meal. Before they had finished, 

 a surly-looking Mexican rode up, fairly bristling with 

 revolvers and knives. We recognized him as fulfillino- 

 the description of the " bad man " of this district, the 

 leader of a gang of bandits. He may have been a hard- 

 ened desperado, but SenoritrCs kindness to his chil- 

 dren, for such they proved to be, won his heart, and 

 our cereal ''cast upon the waters" was returned to 

 us abundantly ; for lie helped us in finding certain 

 animals and birds of which we were in search, and in 

 a hundred ways thereafter firmly fixed our opinion that 

 a Mexican bandit, when his good will is won, is a highly 

 desirable person to have about camp. 



FOUR LONG-TAILED BEAUTIES 



In the morning we were wakened by the screams of 

 macaws. When the notes first reached my ear, I knew 

 that I had heard them before, but where I could not 

 think, and not until I rushed out and saw the birds 

 did I connect the sound with the din of a parrot-house 

 in a zoological park. There the harsh screams rend 

 one's ears, but here, between the walls of the mighty 

 gorge, it is an entirely different utterance. From high 

 overhead the guttural tones come softened, and our 

 eyes following, we see a pair — always a pair — of 

 the great birds, with their long, sweeping tails and 



<i. 173 ^ 



