138 Mr. 0. Salvin's Quesal-shooting in Vera Paz. 
XIV.— Quesal-shooting in Vera Paz. 
By Osbert Salvin, M.A., F.Z.S. 
As the greater part of this account of the mode of collecting 
Quesals [Pharomacrus paradiseus), as pursued by the Coban 
hunters, was written at the time in the form of a diary, I have 
thought it best to preserve it in the same shape throughout. 
March 1.—Bain all day and every day is what one must ex¬ 
pect to encounter on visiting Coban. Such was the weather in 
November, and now, the month of March brings no signs of the 
dry season, when in Guatemala people have almost forgotten what 
rain is. When travelling from place to place, the fates have in 
general been propitious, and on coming here they did not desert 
me. Two fine days enabled me to reach Coban from San Geronimo 
with a dry skin, but the next day the usual driving, misty rain 
greeted us on rising, and morning after morning brings no 
change for the better. Luckily, I have found plenty of indoors 
work in arranging and labelling the collections made during my 
absence. Moreover, Coban has this advantage. A mere hint 
at what branch of natural history one has a leaning towards is 
sufficient to bring in specimens in an almost unbroken stream. 
Boy follows boy, till one hardly knows which way to turn to stow 
away the spoils in the shape of birds, snakes, lizards, toads, 
frogs, &c., and no small amount of time is occupied in paying 
these young rascals (for they all try to cheat) for their captures. 
Like everything else, my work appears to have an end. The 
birds are finished and packed, novelties are no longer brought 
in. The period of my stay being limited, idleness cannot be 
long endured, and I am determined, rain or no rain, to be off to 
the mountain-forests in search of Quesals, to see and shoot which 
has been a day-dream for me ever since I set foot in Central 
America. Having secured the services of Cipriano Prado, the 
most successful Quesal-hunter in Coban, and at the same time 
a bird-collector of no mean ability, and also of Filipe Sierra, 
another hunter of Coban, we are beginning to prepare for the 
journey. It is necessary to take provisions, and we are accord¬ 
ingly laying in a stock of salt meat, 'pixtones' (round maize cakes 
i of an inch thick), ‘tamalis' (maize puddings), and f topopoxti' 
