:::::::::*?. two BIRD- LOVERS IN MEXICO ?¥:::".:::: 



rarely or frequently any species haunted the barranca 

 near our camp, one at least seemed never absent. 

 Probably every step or motion we made — from early 

 morning to the last tying of the tent flap at night — 

 was watched by the omnipresent eyes of a vulture, 

 either near at hand or a mile above the barranca wall. 

 With our most powerful glasses we sometimes detected 

 in the blue heavens a tiny black mote, which the naked 

 eye could not distinguish. And yet to such a bird our 

 every motion was doubtless visible. At such a height 

 the barranca abyss must be like a mud crack near the 

 pools ; we, tinier than the lesser insects. No realistic 

 picture of this country should ever lack a black form, 

 high in the sky, soaring incomparably with wide- 

 extended primaries, clutching ever at the empty air. 



When nearer, the vultures seemed hardly birds, so 

 silent and fearless were they. The Caracaras, which 

 associated with them, were more wary and given to 

 occasional screams. But the buzzards, flying near, 

 whether black or red-headed, only peered silently at 

 us, their whistling wings passing close overhead when 

 the report of our gun brought to them hope of some 

 slain bird, lost or fallen out of our reach. Fifty times 

 they sailed onward, disappointed. The fifty-first time 

 they came as quickly, peered as eagerly. Hunger must 

 often pinch them sorely, living things are so abundant, 

 dead creatures so seldom seen. When we set traps for 

 opossums or raccoons, unless carefully concealed, it was 



" «^ 212 ^ 



