This fact has been so often related to me by Indians living in the
woods," said my friend, "that I feel almost disposed to believe it."

"Don't they say the same of the bats and swallows? and yet we know they
change their habitat."

"Yes; but with regard to humming-birds, they assert that they have seen
them asleep. At all events, it is certain that they disappear in the
winter."

The clucking of a bird of the gallinaceous order, called the
hocco--_Crax alector_--interrupted our discussion, and my two companions
carefully proceeded towards a dark-foliaged tree, a little outside the
edge of the forest. The clucking suddenly ceased; we heard the report of
a gun, and I saw three of them fly away into the forest. L'Encuerado was
climbing a tree when I came up, for the bird he had shot had lodged
among the branches.

"Do you see the long pods which hang on that tree?" cried Lucien.

"It is a locust-tree covered with fruit," said my friend; "it is a
relation of the bean and the pea."

"Are the pods eatable?" asked the child, as one fell at his feet.

"You may taste the dark pulp which surrounds the seeds--it is slightly
sweet; but don't eat too much, for it is used in Europe as a medicine."

L'Encuerado dropped at our feet the great bird which Sumichrast had
killed. It was larger in size than a fowl, with a crest upon its head.
Its cry--a sort of clucking of which its Spanish name gives an
idea--tells the traveller its whereabout, although it is ready enough in
making its escape.

L'Encuerado returned to the bivouac, and Sumichrast led us along the
edge of a ravine, obstructed by bushes and shaded by large trees.

We had been quietly on the watch for a minute or two, when three young
wolves, of the species called by the Indians _coyotes_, came running by,
one after the other. They were soon followed by a fourth, and then the
mother herself appeared. She glared at us with her fiery eyes, and then
raised a dull, yelping noise, which brought her young ones to her.

"Upon my word!" exclaimed Sumichrast, "does this wretch intend to give
us a present to her children?"

I stuck my _machete_ into the ground, so as to have it at hand; and the
brute lay down on the ground, as if ready to spring.

"Now then, my fine lady, come and meddle with us if you dare!" muttered
my friend, imitating l'Encuerado's tone.

The _coyote_ uttered a shrill cry, and almost immediately a sixth came
and stood by her.

"Don't fire till I te