ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG NATURALIST. 241 



ing the load ; but, on raising the burden, he found he was unable, 

 so I shouldered the load. 



At last, after no end of exertion on my part and Sumichrast's 

 — for we alternately bore it — three leagues were traversed. We 

 then halted at the foot of a hill, among ebony, mahogany, and 

 oak trees. 



L'Encuerado took charge of the camp, while I, with my friend 

 and Lucien, climbed a neighbouring hill. The trees which 

 crowned its summit were limes — Tilia sylvestris — here the type of 

 what bear the same name, and which are so plentiful in Europe, 

 where they have been so changed by cultivation that they 

 scarcely appear to belong to the same species as their brethren 

 in the virgin forests. The wood of the lime is valued by the 

 Indians for making various odds and ends, which are sold by 

 thousands in Mexico. In Europe, the bark of this tree is used 

 for well-ropes, and the charcoal made from its wood is preferred 

 to any other for the manufacture of gunpowder. Few trees are 

 more useful, and its beautiful green foliage makes it highly orna- 

 mental in a garden. 



Our attention was attracted to a familiar noise — the cooing of 

 doves. I moved gently under the trees, and soon put to flight 

 several fine specimens, of a dark, ashy-blue colour, with a black 

 band across the tail-feathers, which were of a pearl-gray. I 

 killed a couple of them; and Sumichrast, who was better placed, 

 knocked down three others. They were quite sufficient for our 

 dinners. They were the first of this family that we had killed, and 

 Lucien in vain tried to make out what he called their relationship. 



" They are neither passerines," said he, " nor palmipedes. 

 Climbers, too, have differently-made feet." 



" Your doubts are very natural," interposed my friend ; " even 

 ornithologists are very undecided on this point. Nevertheless 

 they class pigeons among the gallinacese, looking upon them as 

 a link between this order and the passerines." 



" Why don't they make an order for them by themselves 1 " 



" Bravo, Master Sunbeam ! your idea is an excellent one, but 

 it has been already proposed; several naturalists reckon an order 

 of columhidce. But you ought to know that pigeons inhabit the 



Q 



