;::::;:::C WALKS IN THE CACTUS COUNTRY m::::;:::: 



often require more than the eye and the opera-glass 

 can reveal. And indeed, aside from the delicate grad- 

 ations of colour and form, it is often a most difficult 

 thing to recognize on sight, a bird, the descrij^tion of 

 which one has read several weeks previously. Some 

 character seems to be added or something lacking, 

 such is the effect of the environment and the excite- 

 ment of seeing a new bird for the first time. 



We took our meals at the delightful EI Sanatorio, 

 where one finds a haven of good American cooking in 

 a land of beans and fried unleavened corn-cakes. The 

 two-storied patio was always filled with flowers, great 

 geraniums and heliotropes making the air fragrant by 

 day ; and the immaculate cereus blossoms jjouring 

 forth their perfume in the moonlight. During Janu- 

 ary and February the entire front of the building was 

 a mass of purple BougainvUlea. 



What a source of curiosity a naturalist and his wife 

 are to fellow boarders ! Many people seem incapable 

 of believing that any one can be so foolish as to waste 

 time in w^atching birds and insects for mere pleasure. 

 When we would return from one of our camping trips, 

 this one would have a suspicion that I was secretly 

 prospecting for gold ; another would be sure that I 

 was surreptitiously locating marketable timber. But 

 finally one and all expressed astonishment that they had 

 been living so long with eyes blinded to the beautiful 

 things of the world. They began to realize that the 



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