::::;::::C TWO BIRD -LOVERS IN MEXICO sfc:"""" 



Most of our hunting was done with cameras and 

 glasses, and this kind of sport proved fully as exciting 

 and required infinitely more skill than the simple level- 

 lingc of a gfun. 



We had not long to Avait ; the birds came thick and 

 fast ; the insects whirred by our tent ; lizards rustled 

 among the leaves. Indeed, for a time ^ve hardly took 

 notice of any details, so disconcerting were the impres- 

 sions of constantly appearing forms, new and strange. 



The sand-bars in front of our camp were seldom 

 untenanted for more than an hour by one or two 

 species of birds — both old friends. The first note to 

 greet us came from one of these sand-spits, KiU-dee ! 

 Kill-dee ! and there a pair of beautiful Killdeer Plov- 

 ers stood watching us, their belted breasts of black and 

 white bobbing cheerfully, bringing to mind the mud- 

 flats of Fundy, the dry uplands of Virginia. Where 

 indeed do not the notes of this handsome bird pene- 

 trate ? Here from late January on, the Killdeers were 

 moving restlessly downstream, passing slowly day after 

 day in pairs or small flocks. At first we thought the 

 same individuals reappeared each day, but when occa- 

 sionally our larder ran short and we shot a half-dozen, 

 the following day Killdeers in equal numbers were 

 running about. This slow migration, or at least very 

 regular wandering, is shared by another species — the 

 Solitary Sandpipers; little waders not wisely named, 

 at least in this land, for wherever we saw them they 



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