emed to grow giddy, and began to stagger. It then fell
over, still clutching the branch with its strong, prehensile claws; but
after hanging a moment, these too relaxed, and the body fell heavily to
the ground. It was quite dead.

Long before it came down Guapo had pushed a fresh arrow into the tube,
and given a fresh puff through it, wounding a second of the macaws. Then
another arrow was chosen, and another victim, until several had been
shot, and the creatures upon the tree could be seen in all stages of
dying. Some, on receiving the wound, uttered a cry and flew off, but the
poison soon brought them down, and they invariably fell at no great
distance from the tree.

At length Guapo was seen to desist, and walk boldly out from his ambush.
To the surprise of all, the remaining macaws, of which there were still
six or seven upon the tree, showed no fear of him, nor did they attempt
to fly away! This was explained, however, by their subsequent conduct;
for in a few seconds more they were seen, one by one, falling to the
ground, until not a single bird was left upon the tree. All of them had
been killed by the arrows of the blow-gun!

Leon now ran out to assist Guapo in gathering his game. There were no
less than eight couple of them in all, and they were all quite
dead--some of them shot in the thigh, some in the neck or wing, and
others through the body. None of them had lived over two minutes after
receiving the wound. Such is the quickness with which the "curare" does
its work!

As a hunting instrument for most species of game the South American
Indian prefers the gravatana to any other; and with good reason. Had
Guapo been armed with a rifle or fowling-piece, he would have shot one
macaw, or perhaps a pair, and then the rest would have uttered a
tantalising scream, and winged their way out of his reach. He might have
missed the whole flock, too, for on a high tree, such as that on which
they had alit, it is no easy matter to kill a macaw with a shot-gun. Now
the gravatana throws its arrow to a height of from thirty to forty
yards, and the least touch is sufficient to do the business. Its
silence, moreover, enables the hunter to repeat the shot, until several
head of game reward his skill. The Indians use it with most effect in a
vertical or upward direction; and they are always surer to kill a bird
with it when perched on a high tree, than when seated on a low shrub or
on the ground.

As we have observed that