26 



A FLYING TRIP TO THE TBOPICS. 



every respect to those of the Venezuela. However, we were anxious 

 to hurry on, so I took passage for us, for which I had to pay twenty 

 dollars apiece in gold. We took lunch on the Venezuela, and after- 

 wards I skinned the birds that 

 we had shot in the morning. I 

 had never skinned a humming- 

 bird before, and the first one that 

 I tried was such a sorry-looking 



object when I had fin- 

 ished, that I simply 

 opened the second, took 

 out the intestines, and filled it with dry arsenic. This is the way 

 that I preserved nearly all of the humming-birds that I secured on 

 this trip, and I afterwards had cause to regret it. Though they 

 look well enough at first, and though the flesh is preserved, it 

 shrivels until the skin is distorted ; and, again, if the birds are 

 packed away in a trunk for a week or ten days without being- 

 aired, they are apt to be mouldy and mildewed when taken out. I 

 should advise all collectors to skin their humming-birds as they do 

 larger birds. 



Later in the afternoon we took a short walk through the streets, 

 went into the old Dutch fort to the post-office, mailed some letters, 

 came back to say good-by to our friends on the Venezuela, then 

 had our baggage taken over to the Navigator, and settled ourselves 

 in our staterooms. As we crossed the harbor, I saw flying over, 

 high in the air, a frigate pelican [Frefjata aquila). It sailed along 

 gracefully, opening and closing its scissor-like tail. 



We cast loose our lines about half past four, soon passed out of 



