BUENAVENTURA TO CALI 17 



shade, and an occasional yellow-headed caracara (Milvago 

 chimachima) that, perched on the tip of a swaying stalk, 

 gave vent to its feelings in a succession of shrill, long- 

 drawn screams. 



Farther away, where clumps of woods grew, birds were 

 more plentiful. There were many red-fronted parrakeets 

 nesting in holes in dead stubs. Red-headed woodpeckers 

 (Chrysoptilus p. striatigularis) in numbers hammered on 

 hollow trunks; the strokes are so rapid that the sound re- 

 sembles the roll of a snare-drum. Pigmy woodpeckers 

 (Picumnus) no larger than a good-sized humming-bird, 

 worked industriously on the smaller branches. They are 

 obscurely marked mites of feathered energy, of a dark olive 

 color with a few red dots on top of the blackish head. When 

 the nesting season arrives a tiny cavity is excavated in some 

 partially decayed limb in which two round, white eggs are 

 deposited. These birds are nearly always found in pairs, 

 and when the young leave the nest they accompany the 

 parents, forming small family parties that forage for minute 

 insects among the crevices of rough bark and in decayed 

 wood. 



Occasionally it seemed as if we were not so far from our 

 northern home after all; for along the edges of the numerous 

 marshes ran an old acquaintance the spotted sandpiper. 

 In the reeds yellow-headed blackbirds chirped and fluttered; 

 but they are slightly smaller than the North American birds 

 and have even been placed in a different genus (Agelaius). 

 By walking quietly it was also possible to surprise a deer 

 that had been tempted far from cover by the prospects of a 

 luscious breakfast in some little plantation. These animals 

 are so greatly persecuted that they make off at the first 

 sign of danger. 



