122 



A FLYING TRIP TO THE TROPICS. 



steamers, and is run on quite a different plan from the Enrique. 

 We made very few stops, and did not take on wood until we tied 

 up for the night. Just after sunset we tied up, and as soon as the 

 gang-plank was put out, Cabell and I hurried ashore. Within 

 twenty yards of the landing Cabell shot a large hawk which dropped 

 in a thicket near by, and as he ran to pick it up a large bird sailed 

 out of the forest, and lit in the tree over his head. He fired at it, 

 and it spread its wings and glided down to the ground about fifty 

 yards off, where one of the little Indian boys with us ran and 

 br6ught it back. Darkness comes on almost instantaneously here, 

 for in the minute or two that had elapsed since the hawk was shot, 

 it had become so dark that we had to give up the search for it, and 

 return to the boat. We found Captain Bradford anxious on our 

 account, fearing that we would be snake-bitten. When I came to 

 examine the bird that the little Indian had picked up, I found it to 

 be something new and very curious. It was of the whippoorwill 

 family, but very large, measuring twenty-one inches in length by 

 forty-two in extent. Its mouth, which was not provided with bristles, 

 was so large that I easily put a moderate-sized orange in it. Its eyes 

 were very large and dark, the soles of its feet broad and flat like the 

 palm of a hand. Its upper mandible had a tooth-like projection on 

 each side, and fitted over the lower. Its tail was large and rounded, 

 and, like the rest of its plumage, was beautifully mottled with gray 

 and black. Its back was rusty in places and its shoulders were 

 dark brown {Nyctihiiis grandis). I skinned it the following morn- 

 ing. It was a female, and had been feeding on large black beetles. 

 It was larger than a short-eared owl. 



I bought at this place a very prettily marked tiger-cat's skin, 

 quite fresh, and saw several peccary-skins and a portion of the skin 

 of a tapir. I was told that there were two species of tapir found 

 near here, one in the river valley and another on the mountains. 



Above Yeguas I saw the same kinds of sparrow-hawks and ru- 

 fous-winged buzzards that I had seen when here two weeks ago. 

 Below Yeguas I saw many blue and yellow, and blue and scarlet 



