. Two bird-lovers in Mexico . bills and heads encrusted with the gummy little parrakeets were not shy, but very watch-ful, and, when frightened, they always flew to a curioustree which, though bare of leaves, was sparsely coveredwith an odd-looking, long and four-sided fruit of agreen colour. Under such circumstances they alightedall together, and, unlike their usual custom of perchingin pairs, they scattered all over the tree, stood veryuprigiit, and remained motionless. From a distance offifty feet it was impossible to distinguish parrakeet fromfruit, so close was the resemblanc
. Two bird-lovers in Mexico . bills and heads encrusted with the gummy little parrakeets were not shy, but very watch-ful, and, when frightened, they always flew to a curioustree which, though bare of leaves, was sparsely coveredwith an odd-looking, long and four-sided fruit of agreen colour. Under such circumstances they alightedall together, and, unlike their usual custom of perchingin pairs, they scattered all over the tree, stood veryuprigiit, and remained motionless. From a distance offifty feet it was impossible to distinguish parrakeet fromfruit, so close was the resemblance. A hawk dasheddown once and carried away a bird, but the othersremained us still as if they were inanimate fruit. Thissilent trust in the protective resemblance of the greenfruit was most remarkable, when we remembered thefrantic shrieks which these birds always set up at theapproach of danger, when they happened to be caughtaway from one of these Parrot-fruit trees. These latter - -04 181 ^ :^v TWO BIRD-LO\^RS IN MEXICO M. PAKKOT-KKLIT TREE have no common name; botanists know it as PUeiisconica. Several times durini; our stay we saw a beautifulsunset flilit of Finsch Amazon Parrots. A flock oftwo hundred or more, massed toj^ether as closely aspossible, appeared high in air, alternately soaring and - «4 18^2 ^ :::n:::5>x NEAR THE T\YIX VOLCANOS m::::;::r. fluttering. Then the entire flock swung earthward ina magnificent loop, from waU to wall of the barranca,the delicate lavender edgings of the feathers showingplainly as they swept past with a loud whirr of wings,each little foot clinched tightly close to the tail-feath-
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