:;:::::::*? TWO BIRD-LOVERS IN MEXICO W=^ 



billed Thrashers and Mockingbirds and occasionally 

 a White-rumped Shrike. All three species, when nnino- 

 lested, flew to the ground and fed greedily on a kind of 

 black ant which covered the earth in great hordes in 

 certain sharply defined areas. This seemed an unusual 

 habit of the shrikes, which are generally strictly arbo- 

 real. Winding through deep crevices worn through 

 old lava floAvs, we came at last to the edge of the Ba?'- 

 rcuica Atenqulqui ( Atenke'ke), and the view before us 

 banished all the disappointment which the barrenness 

 of the desert behind us had aroused. The deep gorge 

 at our feet is bright and green, and at the bottom the 

 dense semi-tropical foliage almost conceals the white- 

 rippled stream which rushes along. A turn in the 

 barranca, some little distance to the right, frames 

 the volcano squarely between the two walls, and from 

 the gorge to the edge of the gray, impassable, live 

 lava, extends a verdant " Promised Land," to roam 

 throuo'h Avhich we were as eagfer as were the horses 

 for the cool stream below. 



This side of the barranca, however, is steep and 

 rocky, and the way to the bottom is treacherous and 

 slow. The sure-footed mules felt their way at each 

 stej), and we leaned far back against the rear pommel 

 of the great saddles, the shoulders of the horses work- 

 ing laboriously, the animals hanging back in the steep 

 places. With a final reckless rush we tore down the 

 last slope, shouting out in English and Spanish with 



^- 130 •^- 



