HUNTING LURIS. 259 



lines of gulls, sandpipers, plovers, and curlews, gath- 

 er, and, as the water advances, they are forced to 

 approach the shore until the only resting-places left 

 them are the logs and snags that raise theii* crooked 

 limbs and roots above the sui-face of the water. At 

 such times these perching-places are one living, flut- 

 terino; mass of birds. Ao:ain and ao^ain I came to 

 this spot, and always returned with as many speci- 

 mens as my native hunter could skin on the follow- 

 ing day. 



A few minutes' walk back of the controleur's 

 house took me into the suiTounding forest, where I 

 was accustomed to ramble to and fro hour after hour 

 until I knew all the favorite haunts of most of the 

 bii'ds ; yet nearly eveiy day, till the time I left, I se- 

 cured specimens of a species that had not been repre- 

 sented in my collection. Still others were seen, and 

 one or more specimens of them must be obtained ; 

 and thus, the more I collected, the more interesting 

 became my work. My regular daily routine was to 

 hunt in the morning till ten or eleven o'clock, return 

 to the house to avoid the heat, and then go out again 

 about four, and remain till the setting sun warned 

 me to retui'n or grope my way back as best I could 

 through the dark woods. Soon after I arrived, a 

 tree, as large as our oak, became filled A\Hith great 

 scarlet flowers, and in the early morning flocks of red 

 luris {Eo8 rubra^ Gml.) and other parrakeets, with 

 blue heads, red and green breasts, and the feathers 

 on the under side of the wings of a light red and bril- 

 liant yellow {Triclioglo8Sii8 cyanogrammus^ Wagl.), 

 \vould come to feed on them. It was easy to kno\v 



