enty of them here.
They take the places in the East of the toucans of the West. But now,
Nat, there is an easy shot for you--look! Ebo is pointing to it.
There, seated on that twig. Now see he darts off after a fly and is
back again. No, he is off once more. We have scared him."

But by this time I had seen the bird, and taking quick aim as it hovered
and snatched at a fly of some kind, I fired and brought it down, to find
that I too had got a prize in the shape of a lovely little bee-eater,
with plumage rich in green and blue, brown and black, while its tail was
also rendered more beautiful by the extension of its central feathers in
two long thin points.

My uncle's gun spoke out again the next moment, the second barrel
following quickly, and Ebo ran and picked up another of the lovely
kingfishers, and one of a different kind with a rich coral-red beak,
short tail, and its back beautifully barred with blue and black like the
ornamental feathers in the wings of a jay.

"That is a bee-eater you have shot, Nat, and a lovely thing too. Mine
are all kingfishers."

"There must be a little stream down in that hollow between those rocks,
uncle," I replied.

"No, Nat, I don't suppose there is," he said, smiling. "But why do you
say that?"

"Because of those kingfishers, uncle. There must be a stream or pool
somewhere near."

"I daresay there is, Nat; but not on account of these birds, my lad.
They are dry kingfishers, Nat. They do not live upon fish, but upon
beetles, butterflies, and moths, darting down and picking them off the
ground without wetting a feather."

"Why, how curious!" I said. "They have beaks just like the kingfishers
at home."

"Very much like them, Nat," he said; "but they catch no fish. But come,
we must get back to the hut, or we shall never get our birds turned into
skins before dark. Look out!"

We fired so closely together that it sounded like one shot, and three
more of the great pigeons fell heavily to the ground--part of a little
flock that was passing over our head.

Ebo seized them with a grin of delight, for he knew that these meant
larder, and then hastening back we had just time to strip and prepare
our skins before night fell, when, work being ended, the fire was relit,
the kettle boiled, and a sort of tea-supper by moonlight, with the dark
forest behind and the silvery sea before us, ended a very busy day.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

A BIT OF A SCARE.

That nigh