-""•m TWO BIRD-LOVERS IN MEXICO M:^^ 



any member of their family. Quietly hidden under 

 thick brush, I often looked forward to an interestino- 

 hour's watching of the wild life, when the sharp eyes 

 of one of these inquisitive birds would spy me out and 

 put an end to all need of concealment in that vicinity. 

 He would shriek and cry his loudest, alarming the 

 most confiding species, and making every bird within 

 a quarter of a mile uneasy and suspicious. Some of 

 these jays have white throats, outlined by a band of 

 blue, while in others the whole throat and front of the 

 neck is black. Perfect gradations existed between 

 these two extremes, the difference being due solely to 

 age. The jays seemed to feed on anything — nuts, 

 seeds, berries, insects, and even small birds, wdiich, 

 apparently paralyzed with fear at the shrieks of the 

 blue marauders, were an easy prey. 



A very different bird is the Rufous Cuckoo, which is 

 to our cuckoo as the Long-tailed Crested Jay is to our 

 Blue Jay — an extreme development fostered by this 

 lifeful tropical country. No loud-voiced rascal was 

 this cuckoo, but a slender shadow of a bird, which 

 slipped so easily through the thickest coverts that the 

 eye was continually losing him. At times but a distant 

 glimpse might be had, and again a pair of the birds 

 would sit quietly within five or six feet, moving in 

 their peculiar flowing manner from branch to branch. 

 They are exquisite in their plumage, which is downy, 

 like fine silk — a rich brown rufous from head to tail, 



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