ROADSIDE SKETCHES IN GUATEMALA 101 



a collector of aquatic birds, equally so of mosquitoes, sandflies, 

 and ants. Keturning from one of our excursions in the evening 

 we saw several scarlet macaws, those almost too gorgeously 

 feathered birds, settle in a lofty tree not far distant. Desirous of 

 possessing a couple of those brilliant skins, and having noticed 

 that the birds always flew about dusk in a certain direction, I 

 went on and asked my companion to go to the tree and start the 

 game. These macaws always fly in pairs, male and female 

 together, the most faithful and affectionate couples to be found, 

 of which we were presently to have a most remarkable instance. 

 Well, I posted myself and expected every moment to hear shouts 

 of " macaw over ; macaw to the left " or " macaw to the right," 

 but everything was quiet until a shot from the amateur beater 

 broke the silence. Disappointed by his treachery, I sat down 

 and waited, and presently he appeared with a struggling macaw 

 under his arm, but minus a large piece of skin of the nose, and 

 plus a cut in the cheek, and with his hand tied up in a bloody 

 handkerchief. I was avenged ! It would not perhaps suit ears 

 polite to tell the adventure in the language it was told to me 

 then, so I will only say that on my friend firing at one of the 

 macaws the bird fell down winged, but immediately scrambled 

 up a young tree. The hunter's blood was up and he followed 

 the quarry, when suddenly the tree broke and both came 

 down on the ground together. Nothing daunted, although 

 bleeding from the face, he rushed through a bush after the 

 screeching bird, leaving part of his nose on the thorns, and 

 eventually seized the macaw, who immediately, not to be behind- 

 hand, buried his beak in his captor's finger. Thus attached to 

 one another the chase was over, and presently master macaw 

 was sitting in our camp tied to the stump of a tree. The other 

 bird, frightened at the shot, had flown away, but so strong was 

 the love for its mate, that next morning to our intense astonish- 

 ment it suddenly appeared in a tree close to the prisoner, 

 showing by its noisy demonstrations the distress and annoyance 

 it felt at the apparent desertion of her husband. Our camp was 

 a mile away from the scene of the battle ; was it wonderful 

 instinct or what that led it to discover the prisoner in the 

 depths of the forest ? The macaw did very well ; for two days 

 he travelled with us on a mule, with its wing in a bandage, and 

 then seated upon a pole he was sent to the house of a friend, 



