70 



A FLYING TRIP TO THE TROPICS. 



green without any blue. In a marsliy spot near a little stream, I 

 shot one of the black and white birds that I had seen in the marshes 

 at Barranquilla. It Avas a male, a little smaller than a pewee, white, 

 with wings, tail, back of head, and centre of back black {Fhim- 

 cola j^ica), I also shot three more jacamars {G. imjicciuda) and a 

 puff-bird like the one we got at Barranquilla {B. mjicoUis), Lin- 

 dauer shot a couple of flycatchers ; the first, a male, smaller than 

 our bee-martin, yellow below, brownish olive above, crown brown, 

 with a large yellow and orange patch, white streak from nostrils 

 above eye to back of head, and throat white {Myiozetetes cay- 

 ennensls) ; the second, a female, about the size of our great-crested 

 flycatcher, plumbeous above, a small orange crown-j)atch, throat and 

 breast grayish, and below light yellow [Tyramius melancJiolicus). 

 He also shot a most peculiar and beautiful little bird, a male in fine 

 plumage. It was about the size of a wren, but with an extremely 

 short and awkward-lookina* tail. Its leo^s were white with a scarlet 

 ring above the tarsus, its head rich golden yellow becoming orange 

 with traces of scarlet at the back. The rest of its plumage was 

 glossy blue-black. Its eyes were white with fine red lids, and 

 its bill light yellow [Pipra cmricapiUa). At this place I saw a 

 flock of certainly five hundred of the orange- chinned parrakeets 

 [Brotogei^ys jugular is) in a mango-tree near the boat. 



After leaving this place, we stopped no more until we tied up for 

 the night ; so I spent the rest of the day in skinning the birds and 

 shooting at alligators. Every sand-bar, or " playa " as they are 

 called, was sure to have a number on it. They generally lie in the 

 sun with their mouths wide open, the upper jaw making an angle 

 of forty-five degrees with the lower. When shot at, they sometimes 

 slid off into the water like terrapins from a log ; but when they 

 were well up on the playa, they rose deliberately to their feet and 

 walked off, their bodies looking as high from the ground as that of 

 a dog. 



All day long the river was very crooked ; there were bluffs of 

 red clay along the shores ; the country was not so marshy, and we 



