ant little True,
it turned tail, and bounded away through the forest,--John, who had been
hurrying up, getting a distant shot as it disappeared among the trees.
Arthur and the two Indians followed John, greatly alarmed at our shouts
and the sound of the firearms.

Nimble and Toby, still chattering with fear, came down from their lofty
retreat when we called them, and, looking very humble and penitent,
followed Ellen to the hut; while we, calling Domingos to our assistance,
set to work to skin the puma. The meat we cooked and found very like
veal, and Domingos managed to dress the skin sufficiently to preserve
it.

Duppo had clearly understood Ellen's wish to have some humming-birds
caught alive. We were always up at daybreak, to enjoy the cool air of
the morning. He had gone out when the first streaks of dawn appeared in
the eastern sky, over the cold grey line of the river. When we could do
so with safety, we never failed to take a bath. We had just come out of
the water, and were dressing, when Duppo ran up, and signed to us to
follow him. We called Ellen as we passed the hut, and all together went
towards the igarape, where, in a more open space than usual, a number of
graceful fuschia-looking flowers, as well as others of different forms,
hung suspended from long tendrils, intertwined with the branches of the
trees. Into this spot the rising sun poured its glorious beams with
full brilliancy. We cautiously advanced, when the space before us
seemed suddenly filled with the most beautiful sparking gems of varied
colours, floating here and there in the bright sunlight. I could
scarcely believe that the creatures before us belonged to the feathered
tribes, so brilliant were their hues, so rapid their movements.
Sometimes they vanished from sight, as they darted with inconceivable
rapidity from branch to branch. Now one might be seen for an instant
hovering over a flower, its wings looking like two grey filmy fans
expanded at its sides. Then we could see another dip its long slender
bill into the cup of an upright flower. Now one would come beneath a
suspended blossom. Sometimes one of the little creatures would dart off
into the air, to catch some insect invisible to the eye; and we could
only judge of what it was about by its peculiar movements. As we
watched, a tiny bird would perch on a slender twig, and rest there for a
few seconds, thus giving us an opportunity of examining its beauties.
Ellen could