"M TWO BIRD -LOVERS IN MEXICO 3^"""" 



nel, adding, bit by bit, to each end until the covered 

 runway was again continuous. 



If an ant was accidentally crushed, a strong odour 

 of formic acid filled the air for many yards. No matter 

 in what part of the tree, or at what particular point in 

 the miles of tunnels a disturbance occurred, the ants 

 poured out in myriads to repair the damage. They must 

 have been greater in number than the very leaves on 

 the trees. The tunnels led into the ground, where the 

 main home of the colony was doubtless situated, and 

 into which the pieces of leaves cut off in all parts of the 

 tree were carried. A more terrible experience than 

 having to climb a tree thus guarded could hardly be 

 imagined, and yet large black squirrels occasionally 

 ran rapidly from branch to branch in these very trees. 

 But it was unlikely that even they remained long in 

 the vicinity of a damaged ant-tunnel. 



Certain species of birds were confined to a very 

 limited area. Robins we saw nowhere except in these 

 groves of wild figs, where they frequently shared a 

 branch with some brilliant tropical bird — dwellers of 

 lands far apart, associated for a time in the same tree. 

 Here, too, we found the little Godman Euphonia in 

 abundance — four inches of violet and yellow ; the male 

 with his bright yellow cap, breast, and under parts, 

 and his mate of a sombre greenish. The voice of the 

 Euphonia is out of all proportion to his size — a loud 

 but slow and hesitating jjJte-ut' I j)h€-ut' I 



«^- 194 ^ 



