ou described. I would rather take that home with me than all the
other pets, and yet I should be sorry to lose any of them."

"I tell Ellen that her menagerie is a mere bait to jaguars or boas, or
other prowling animals of the forest," observed John. "What a nice
breakfast one of them would make if it found its way into our
settlement!"

"You shall not frighten me with any such ideas," she answered; "and I
hope before we leave the country that I may add many more to my
collection. But I have not shown you my humming-bird yet," she said.
"I keep it in a cage in the house for fear the others should get at it;
but it takes a flight by itself every day, and comes back again when it
wants a sip of sirrup, or wishes to go to roost. I must show you some
nests of the beautiful little birds which have built not far off. Would
you like to go and see them at once?"

Knowing it would please her, while Domingos and Maria were preparing our
evening meal, I accompanied her to a little distance, where, hanging to
some long, pendant leaves, she pointed out two little purse-shaped
nests, composed, apparently, of some cottony material bound together
with spider-web. A graceful little bird was sitting in each of them,
with tails having long, pointed feathers. The upper part of their
bodies were of a green bronze, except the tail-coverts, which were of a
somewhat rusty red; while the tails themselves were of a bronzed tint,
broadly tipped with white. I knew them by the shape of their bills and
their nests to belong to the genus _Phaethornis_.

"They are quite accustomed to me now," she said, "and will not fly away
even when I go near them."

While we were looking, the mate of one of the birds came up and perched
close above the nest. As we were going away I saw two others pass by
us, of the same size, it seemed to me. Another settled on a flower near
at hand, when the idea seized me that I could catch it. I struck it
with my hat, and down it fell. Ellen uttered a cry of sorrow; but
stooping down, what was my surprise to find, instead of a humming-bird,
a moth so exactly in shape and appearance like the humming-birds, that
it was no wonder I had been deceived.

"You would not have killed a humming-bird so easily," said Ellen; "but I
am sorry for the poor moth."

The moth, however, though stunned, was not killed. On taking it to the
hut I compared it with her tame pet, and was struck by the remarkable
similarity in the sh