::::;:::3X NEAR THE TWIN VOLCANOS m::::;:::: 



wanted. The poor little half-starved creatures rushed 

 at the food and ate and ate until I hardly thought that 

 they would survive their meal. Before they had finished, 

 a surly-looking- Mexican rode up, fairly bristling with 

 revolvers and knives. We recognized him as fulfilling 

 the description of the " had man " of this district, the 

 leader of a gang of bandits. He may have been a hard- 

 ened desperado, but tSenor'iia's kindness to his chil- 

 dren, for such they proved to be, won his heart, and 

 our cereal "cast upon the waters" was returned to 

 us abundantly ; for he helped us in finding certain 

 animals and birds of which we were in search, and in 

 a hundred ways thereafter firmly fixed our opinion that 

 a Mexican bandit, when his good will is won, is a highly 

 desirable person to have about camp. 



FOUR LONG-TAILED BEAUTIES 



In the morning we were wakened by the screams of 

 macaws. When the notes first reached my ear, I knew 

 that I had heard them before, but where I could not 

 think, and not until I rushed out and saw the birds 

 did I connect the sound with the din of a parrot-house 

 in a zoological park. There the harsh screams rend 

 one's ears, but here, between the walls of the mighty 

 gorge, it is an entirely difl^erent utterance. From high 

 overhead the guttural tones come softened, and our 

 eyes following, we see a pair — always a pair — of 

 the great birds, with their long, sweeping tails and 



^ 173 ^ 



