"

We had hardly spoken before Mapah, who was some distance ahead, stopped,
held up her hand, and stole back, signing for us to take her place and
go forward.

We cocked our guns and stepped cautiously on, to find ourselves at the
edge of an opening where no less than five of the lovely birds we sought
were perched, each on a dead bough, with plumage absolutely glittering
in the sun-rays, which shot through, just as the flashing scale of the
humming-bird sends forth its gleams of broken light.

Every now and then one darted out into the full sunshine in chase of
butterfly or beetle, its loose tail-feathers spreading out comet-like
and waving in the clear air.

The scene was so striking that for some time we stood bending forward
watching the birds and their actions, every movement showing their
glorious plumage in a fresh light, and but one feeling was upon us--that
it was like sacrilege to destroy creatures so exquisitely perfect. At
last, though, the naturalist and collector prevailed. We had come
thousands of miles to secure specimens of these birds for English
museums, and have them we must.

I started as from a dream on seeing my uncle move.

"Going to fire, uncle?" I said.

"Yes, Nat," he replied, with something like a sigh; "we must have a few
to take back."

He raised his gun, but lowered it again, and looked at me, while I
looked at him.

"Was it all a dream?" he said hoarsely.

"Surely not, uncle," I cried, as I stared about the opening, where not a
bird was to be seen.

But we had proof directly that it was no dream, for Pete, who was
holding the spare guns, cried excitedly:

"Oh, I say! You've let 'em go!"

In the days which followed we were less sentimental, getting, in the
neighbourhood of where we had seen them first, specimen after specimen
in the most perfect plumage, till we felt that it would be like a crime
to shoot down more.

"Let's get away from the temptation, Nat," said my uncle, and the very
next day we started back, intent now on the one thought of getting our
treasures safely home.

We parted from our Indian companions a fortnight later, sending them
ashore with our guide's wound so nearly cured that he could limp about
easily. They were laden with presents--Uncle Dick's patient proud of
the grandest prize he evidently thought a man could possess, to wit, the
carpenter's axe; and his wife rejoicing in a leather housewife of
needles and thread, a pair of good useful s