and nature around us. So we were left behind alone and all our

baggage and camp beds far on ahead of us ; the consequence was

that when night overtook us we were forced to stop at a miserable

shanty, and lay on a bare plank for a bed and used our riding

boots as pillows. Our supper consisted of a very small tin of

sardines which was the only food we chanced to have with us.

Not being then inured to such discomforts, our aching bones

refused to allow of sleep, so we were up and had saddled our horses

when it was scarcely daylight, and started off on empty

stomachs. As the sun rose, multitudes of beautiful birds came

forth from every tree and bush and were shaking the dew from

their feathers and drying themselves in the sunshine. Brilliant

green Kingfishers sat motionless watching the stream below

Tyrants darted out into the air to seize some insedt, always

returning again to the same twig; Hangnests were busily

engaged constructing their long purse-shaped nests, and flocks

of little Blue-winged Dove Birds flew screaming from tree to

tree ; Humming birds darted across the path or hovered over

the bushes sipping the honey from the flowers ; little pale Grey

Doves ran along the paths, and then six large birds flew, one

behind the other, from the top of a high tree on the opposite side

of the narrow valley,and flew into another tree just over our heads.

Yes! they were Toucans, there was no mistaking them with their

long bills pointing downwards. At once hunger and discomfort

were forgotten and I was glad that circumstances had caused us

to start so early on our journey that morning; but what a

different flight they had to what I had imagined ! In a cage one

always thinks them somewhat clumsy, but there was no clumsi¬

ness in that graceful flight across the valley, and at the same time

it was unlike any other bird’s. How I feasted my eyes on them

as they gamboled among the branches of the great tree above us.

I say gamboled, for that is what they were doing, chasing each

other from branch to branch and snapping their beaks and

making a peculiar rattling noise in their throats. One would

throw a fruit into the air and before it could catch it again,,

another would seize it without any intention of swallowing it,

but pass it on like boys would a ball. I have never seen any

other birds play together like a number of Toucans will, and

on many occasions since, I have watched them doing the same

thing.


These birds are also high fliers, and, although they never

take a long flight at one time, they generally pass along well

above the tops of the forest trees. They rise in the air, and

came down to wdiere they intend settling with a long swoop.



