126 ‘The Naturalist in Nicaragua 
life, but the sick and incapacitated amongst them are really 
badly off. There is a great indifference amongst the natives 
to the wants of their comrades struck down by sickness or 
accident, and hospitals and asylums are unknown. 
_I was told that the cripple, lame as he was, often took long 
journeys, and had even gone as faras Granada. He had been 
a soldier in one of the revolutions, when John Chamorro was 
President, and ascribed the commencement of the disease to 
getting a chill by bathing when he was heated. 
After he had hobbled off, I bathed in the cool river, and 
then rambled about on the other side, where I found some 
large mango trees full of delicious ripe fruit. It was getting 
on towards noon: the sun was high and hot, and the birds had 
mostly retired into the deepest shades for their mid-day sleep. 
I could have lingered all day, but it was time for me to return, 
as I had arranged with Velasquez to accompany him in search 
of some Indian graves he had heard of about three miles 
away. 
As I left the river, I heard the whistle of the beautiful 
‘“ toledo,” so called because its note resembles these syllables, 
clearly and slowly whistled, with the emphasis on the last 
two. Following the sound, it led me to a deep, thickly- 
timbered gully, at the bottom of which was the bed of a brook, 
consisting now only of detached pools, over one of which, on 
the limb of a tree, sat a large dark-coloured hawk, with white- 
banded tail, watching for fresh-water and land crabs, on 
which it feeds. I had a long chase after the toledo. As 
soon as I got within sight of it, sometimes before, it would dart 
away through the brushwood, generally across the brook, 
and in a few minutes I would hear its deep-toned whistle 
again as if in mockery of my pursuit. I had to climb and 
reclimb the steep banks of the gully: but at last, creeping 
cautiously, and just getting my head above the bank, I got 
a shot. There were two of them sitting close together. I 
brought both down, and they proved to be in fine plumage. 
The toledo (Chirosciphia lineata) is about the size of a linnet, 
of a general velvety black colour. The crown of the head is 
covered with a flat scarlet crest, and the back with what 
looks like a shawl of sky-blue. From the tail spring two long 
ribbon-like feathers. Its curious note is often heard on the 
savannahs, in the thick timber that skirts the small brooks; 
