ttering their shouts.
Thus they go on till they reach the river's brink, when the logs--each
marked with the owner's initials--are thrown into the water, and the
trucks return for a fresh load. When the rains commence, the roads are
impassable, and all trucking ceases.

As the rivers are swelled by the rains, the mahogany-logs are floated
away, followed by the gangs in flat-bottomed canoes, called pit-pans.
Their crews are employed in liberating the logs from the branches of the
overhanging trees and other impediments, till they are stopped by a beam
placed near the mouth of the river. The logs of each owner are now
collected into large rafts, in which state they are floated down to the
wharves of the proprietors. Here they are newly smoothed, and made
ready for shipping to England.

Many other valuable woods come from this region. Rosewood is common on
the northern coast of Honduras. The bushes which produce gum-arabic
abound in all the open savannahs on the Pacific slope. In the forest is
found the copaiba-tree, producing a healing liquid. Here also are found
the copal-tree, the palma-christi, the ipecacuanha--the root of which is
so extensively used in medicine--the liquid amber, as well as
caoutchouc. Here the vast ceiba, or silk-cotton-tree, is abundant, from
which canoes are frequently hollowed out. Indeed, a considerable number
of the trees found on the banks of the Orinoco and Amazon here also come
to perfection.

HUMMING-BIRDS:--THE SLENDER SHEAR-TAIL.

Central America is the home of several beautiful species of those minute
members of the feathered tribe--the humming-birds. Among them is found
the slender shear-tail, which will be known by its deeply-forked black
tail, its wings of purple-brown, and its body of deep shining green,
changing to brown on the head, and bronze on the back and wing-coverts.
The chin is black, with a green gloss; the throat is of a deep metallic
purple; while a large crescent-shaped mark of huff appears on the upper
part of the chest. There is a grey spot in the centre of the abdomen,
and a buff one on each flank, the under tail-coverts being of a greenish
hue.

The female differs greatly from her consort. Her tail is short, the
central feathers being of a golden green; the exterior ones rusty-red at
their base, and black for the greater part of their length, with white
tips. The upper part of her body is also of a golden green; the lower
of a reddish-buff.

THE