:-s NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



3 I 



reloaded three or four times that the survivors took 

 wing and flew off. 



On the slopes of the volcano Tunguragua, the 

 steepest and most symmetrical cone, though not the 

 loftiest, of the Quitonian Andes, I have seen flocks 

 of another Turkey (allied to, but distinct from, the 

 Uru-mutiin of Brazil) feeding on the plum-like 

 drupes of the Motilon, 1 and on the berries of an 

 undescribed Melastome. Besides these fruit-trees, 

 there were also numerous fruit-bearing bushes near, 

 including some true Brambles, \Yhortleberries, and 

 a Hawthorn, all of which probably afforded food to 

 the turkeys. This species seems to inhabit a zone, 

 between 6000 and 10,000 feet, on the wooded 

 flanks of Tunguragua, and within those limits to 

 make the perpetual round of the mountain, being 

 always found on that side where there is most 

 ripe fruit to be had ; and the birds are so tame and 

 sluggish when feeding that the Indians easily kill 

 them with sticks. 



I should suppose that these and other gallina- 

 ceous birds have their fixed centres of resort 

 (breeding- and roosting-places), from which they 

 never stray far. Many Parrots and Macaws, I 

 know, have. On the western slopes of the 

 Quitonian Andes, immense Hocks of Parrots ascend 

 by day to a height of 8000 or 9000 feet, where 

 they ravage the fields of maize and other grain, but 

 always descend to certain warm w r ooded valleys, at 

 2000 to 4000 feet, to roost. The flights of vast 

 multitudes of garrulous parrots and macaws to and 

 fro between their roosting- and feeding-places, in 



1 This name is given to Syiplocos ccnnia, H. B. K., and also to two (or 

 more) species of Hieronyma, all bearing edible drupes. 



