Chap. VIII.] 



PAEROQUETS. 



257 



bazaar, that their noise drowned the Babel of tongues 

 bargaining for the evening provisions. Hearing of the 

 swarms that resorted to this spot, I posted myself on a 

 bridge some half mile distant, and attempted to count 

 the flocks which came from a single direction to the 

 eastward. About four o'clock in the afternoon, strag- 

 gling parties began to wend towards home, and in the 

 course of half an hour the current fairly set in. But I 

 soon found that I had no longer distinct flocks to count, 

 it became one living screaming stream. Some flew high 

 in the air till right above their homes, and dived ab- 

 ruptly downward with many evolutions till on a level 

 with the trees ; others kept along the ground and dashed 

 close by my face with the rapidity of thought, their 

 brilliant plumage shining with an exquisite lustre in the 

 sun-light. I waited on the spot till the evening closed, 

 when I could hear, though no longer distinguish, the 

 birds fighting for their perches, and on firing a shot 

 they rose with a noise like the c rushing of a mighty 

 wind,' but soon settled again, and such a din com- 

 menced as I shall never forget ; the shrill screams of 

 the birds, the fluttering of their innumerable wings, and 

 the rustling of the leaves of the palm trees was almost 

 deafening, and I was glad at last to escape to the 

 Government Eest House." 1 



IV. Columbia. Pigeons. — Of pigeons and doves 

 there are at least a dozen species. Some live entirely 

 on trees 2 , never alighting on the ground ; others, not- 

 withstanding the abundance of food and warmth, are 



1 Annals of Nat. Hist. vol. xiii. 2 Treron bicincta, Jerd. 

 p. 263. 



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