76 SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



We arrived at Ocho d'Agua, and found the 

 inn tolerably good, and pleasantly situated ; 

 here a fine warm spring rises in front of the 

 house, and forms a river. The abundance of 

 birds in this part was prodigious ; consisting 

 principally of the black and red Oriole, on 

 their northern migration ; their number was 

 such at sun-set as partly to obscure the light. 

 Here we also observed large assemblages of 

 horses, mules, and sheep ; and, at the house, 

 many hundreds of pigs, that were shut up in 

 an enclosure for the night and turned out at 

 day-break, when men, with sacks of barley, 

 commenced feeding them, by scattering it 

 along the banks of the warm stream, followed 

 by the hungry herd, and by many thousands 

 of the Orioles. Had these birds been in such 

 numbers in Italy, there would not only have 

 been sufficient taken for present use, but a 

 supply for some months laid up ; here, how- 

 ever, though they consume large quantities of 



