:::::::::*? TWO bird-lovers in Mexico B«""'" 



LIVING MOSS, SUNLIGHT, AND LEAVES 



The arroyo now narrowed to one hundred feet, and 

 tall trees cast a refreshing shade. Here and there a 

 spring oozed from an overhanging ledge, trickled a few 

 yards, and disappeared in the sand. Moss and lichens 

 clothed the face of the cliff, and air-plants and orchids 

 hung gracefully from the rocks and branches over- 

 head; the mouths of gloomy hollows and caverns now 

 and then darkened the mass of verdure. We selected 

 a cool, shady defile, and, relieving ourselves of cameras, 

 gun, and insect-net, we explored the little glade around 

 us. Convolvulus blossoms — scarlet and blue — bright- 

 ened the shadows, and in lighter spots a species of 

 beautiful flowering-grass, not unlike the Pampas grass 

 of florists, grew luxuriantly. 



Several times I passed two or three patches of what 

 I took to be dense growths of a brown hair-like moss, 

 springing from an overarching bank of turf. In at- 

 tempting to pick a blossom almost out of reach, my 

 hand came in contact with the moss and to my surprise 

 it began to scramble away ! A second glance revealed 

 the truth. Thousands of Daddy-long-legs had gathered 

 in this limited space, clinging with their jaws close to 

 the earth, while all their legs dangled down and out- 

 ward. When quiet returned to the mass of little 

 creatures, not one of their bodies was visible, nothing 

 but thousands upon thousands of thread or moss-like 

 legs hanging free. The photograph shows a few indi- 



«4 238 ^ 



