THE ATLANTIC COAST AND ITS CONNECTIONS. 57 
palm-leaves took longer, as it was necessary to split each 
of the immense leaves, which were quite thirty feet long. 
These were tied on to the rafters closely, like clapboards, 
and formed an excellent roof, only surpassed by that made 
of another palm, called confra , found nearer the sea, 
which is so durable as to last eight or ten years. Butts 
of the man&ca formed the sides of the champa; and then 
we had a house large enough for twenty men, with the 
labor of five men a day and a half, at a cost of $3.75. 
For our purpose it was better than the Palace of the 
Caesars. 
One morning I explored the tree to which we were 
moored. A fine balloon-vine ( Cardiospermum ) hung in 
festoons of fragrant flowers from the branches; among 
them was a humming-bird’s nest fashioned as daintily as 
usual of the golden down of tree-ferns, and shingled with 
bits of lichens. It was not the season for eggs ; but I have 
at other times found many nests, with never more than 
two white eggs of the size of a small bean. The young 
birds, I may add, are, when first hatched, most amusing 
little things, all heads and eyes, and without the long 
bill of maturer days. I found also a green grasshopper 
( Tropideres ), five inches long, and very handsome of his 
kind. I wondered if he ate sugar-cane, and other things 
one might want to grow if living in the champa. 
One day, going ashore to cut some sticks for an 
awning on the canoa, I hacked with my machete at a 
tall, slim tree very common along the banks, and which 
had often bothered me by its curled, dried leaves, cling¬ 
ing to the tree and looking very much like the doves 
{qualm) which were so often on the tree that it is named 
for them. This tree, which is botanically known as a 
