pecies of poison is a most complicated process.

Guapo was not long in having an opportunity to test his gravatana, and
this was just what he desired, for the old Indian was not a little vain
of his skill, and he wished to make a show of it in the eyes of his
companions. His vanity, however, was the more pardonable, as he was in
reality a first-rate shot, which he proved to the satisfaction of
everybody within half-an-hour. The instrument had scarcely been
finished and laid aside, when a loud screaming and chattering was heard
in the air, and on looking up a flock of large birds was seen flying
over the heavens. They were still high up, but all of a sudden they
darted down together and alit on a tall tree that stood nearly alone.
Here they continued their chattering, only in a lower and more
confidential tone; and they could be seen, not hopping, but climbing
about, sometimes with their backs and heads turned downwards, and, in
short, clinging to the branches in every imaginable way. These birds
were all of one kind, each of them full eighteen inches in length, and
of a uniform colour over the body, which was a purple, or deep indigo--
their beaks only being white. In the sun their plumage glistened with a
metallic lustre. They were, in fact, a rare species,--the _ana_, or
_purple macaw_.

Without saying a word, Guapo seized his gravatana and arrows, and stole
off through the underwood towards the tree upon which the macaws had
perched. In a few minutes he stood under it, screened from the view of
the birds by the broad leaves of a plantain that happened to grow
beneath. This cover was necessary, else the macaws, which are shy
birds, might have uttered one of their wild, choral screams, and flown
off. They did not however, and Guapo had a fair chance at them. All
his movements could be observed by the party at the house, as he was on
that side of the plantain.

He was seen to adjust an arrow into the tube, and then raise the
gravatana to his lips. Strange to say, he did not hold it as we do a
common gun,--that is, with the left hand advanced along the tube. On
the contrary, both hands were held nearly together, at the lower end,
and close to his mouth. Now, you will wonder how he could hold such a
long tube steady in this way. It is, indeed, a very difficult thing,
and much practice alone can accomplish it. As they watched him
narrowly, his chest was seen to expand, his cheeks rose with a strong
"puff,