378 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
reloaded three or four times that the survivors took 
wing and flew ofl". 
On the slopes of the volcano Tunguragua, the 
steepest and most symmetrical cone, though not the 
loftiest, of the Quitonian Andes, I have seen flocks 
of another Turkey (allied to, but distinct from, the 
Uru-mutiin of Brazil) feeding on the plum-like 
drupes of the Motilon,^ and on the berries of an 
undescribed Melastome. Besides these fruit-trees, 
there were also numerous fruit-bearing bushes near, 
including some true Brambles, Whortleberries, and 
a Hawthorn, all of which probably aflbrded food to 
the turkeys. This species seems to inhabit a zone, 
between 6000 and 10,000 feet, on the wooded 
flanks of Tunguragua, and within those limits to 
make the perpetual round of the mountain, being 
always found on that side where there is most 
ripe fruit to be had ; and the birds are so tame and 
sluggish when feeding that the Indians easily kill 
them with sticks. 
I should suppose that these and other gallina- 
ceous birds have their fixed centres of resort 
(breeding- and roosting-places), from which they 
never stray far. Many Parrots and Macaws, I 
know, have. On the western slopes of the 
Quitonian Andes, immense flocks of Parrots ascend 
by day to a height of 8000 or 9000 feet, where 
they ravage the fields of maize and other grain, but 
always descend to certain warm wooded valleys, at 
2000 to 4000 feet, to roost. The flights of vast 
multitudes of garrulous parrots and macaws to and 
fro between their roosting- and feeding-places, in 
^ This name is given to Syviplocos cermia, H. B. K., and also to two (or 
more) species of Hieronyma, all bearing edible drupes. 
