to 



:::::::;:=»x TWO BiRD-LOVERS IN MEXICO ;*:■"""" 



then they flew off through the woods and we could not 

 find them again. This was my only meeting with the 

 great Mexican Goatsucker. Poor Benito ! Honest and 

 willing to a degree, his ignorance was pitiful. Imjjer- 

 fect Spanish scholar that I was, I soon mastered most 

 of his vocabulary. One word with him would stand 

 for a score of meanings, more or less related, the 

 significance eked out by some eloquent and suggestive 

 gesture. His sign language always saved him extra 

 words, and it needed no translation. 



THE PENDULUM OF THE BARRANCA 



It Avas in a grove of wild fig-trees that I first saw 

 a Mexican Motmot, one of the most interesting and 

 characteristic of the birds of the tierra ccdiente, and 

 perhaps the most beautifully coloured of all the birds 

 we saw in Mexico. One's first impression of a Motmot, 

 as seen at a distance, is of a large-headed, brown and 

 greenish bird, with a broad bar of black on the head. 

 We were fortunate enough to be able to study one 

 of these birds in our very camj). With a lucky shot 

 I stunned one with a small-calibre shot-cartridge. The 

 bird soon recovered and remained about the camp, re- 

 taining its full liberty, feeding upon scraps of meat, or 

 occasionally catching insects for itself. Its favourite 

 perch was a branch of a flowering damllina, to which 

 one end of the ridge-pole of our tent was tied. Here 

 day after day it unconsciously posed before the camera, 



«4 198 ^ 



