A CAMP IN A CRATER. I95 



sparrows. It evidently was not a comfortless morning 

 to them. 



It required considerable time for Toby to get the 

 fire under way and coffee boiled ; but when we 

 had drunk the coffee and munched a biscuit, and I 

 had cleaned and oiled my breech-loader, and inspected 

 my photographic chemicals, we left the cave for the 

 opposite rim of the crater. Down the rather steep 

 hill, along the winding, rocky path, we walked rapid- 

 ly ; I once in a while halted to have a shot at some 

 bird, but not one showed itself, except a wren, that I 

 shot from a mossy stump only a couple of rods from 

 the path ; yet Toby could not find it ; indeed, as his 

 first step plunged him over head in a gulch that had 

 been concealed by ferns, disturbing several black 

 snakes that writhed around his legs, he was so terror- 

 stricken that he would not look, and ever after he 

 would only follow in my footsteps. Then we mounted 

 the near peak, where no trail led, and skirted the 

 crater-brim to the northern side. We went scarcely 

 three quarters of a mile, yet it took us over an hour to 

 reach the farthest practicable point. 



Just there I heard the notes of the soufriere-bird, in 

 a deep gorge back of the crater-rim. There were 

 some pigeon-berry trees growing there, thick and 

 black in the shelter of a hill, and I distinctly saw a 

 black-backed bird giving utterance to wild notes. 

 This was the first time I had seen the soufri^re-bird ; 

 indeed, I had almost come to consider it invisible, as 

 it was popularly supposed to be, for this was the third 

 time I had hunted for it. In a previous ascent, for 

 the purpose of reconnoissance, I had sought it vainly, 

 heard it singing, apparently near me, but could not 



