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 downward, 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," and some
of them thought they could perceive the passage of the little arrow out
of the tube.

However this might be, they soon after saw something sticking in the
side of one of the macaws, and could see the bird pecking at it with its
great beak, and trying to pull it out. In this it appeared to have
succeeded after a short while, for something fell from the tree. It was
the shaft with its cotton "boss" that fell down. The point, broken off
where it had been notched, was still in the body of the bird, and was
infusing the deadly venom into its veins. In about two minutes' time the
wounded bird se