Near the ranch-house, walking familiarly among the cattle, we saw the big, deep-billed Ani blackbirds.  They feed on the insects disturbed by the hoofs of the cattle, and often cling to them and pick off the ticks.  It was the end of the nesting season, and we did not find their curious communal nests, in which half a dozen females lay their eggs indiscriminately.  The common ibises in the ponds near by—­which usually went in pairs, instead of in flocks like the wood ibis—­were very tame, and so were the night herons and all the small herons.  In flying, the ibises and storks stretch the neck straight in front of them.  The jabiru—­a splendid bird on the wing—­also stretches his neck out in front, but there appears to be a slight downward curve at the base of the neck, which may be due merely to the craw.  The big slender herons, on the contrary, bend the long neck back in a beautiful curve, so that the head is nearly between the shoulders.  One day I saw what I at first thought was a small yellow-bellied kingfisher hovering over a pond, and finally plunging down to the surface of the water after a school of tiny young fish; but it proved to be a bien-te-vi king-bird.  Curved-bill wood-hewers, birds the size and somewhat the coloration of veeries, but with long, slender sickle-bills, were common in the little garden back of the house; their habits were those of creepers, and they scrambled with agility up, along, and under the trunks and branches, and along the posts and rails of the fence, thrusting the bill into crevices for insects.  The oven-birds, which had the carriage and somewhat the look of wood-thrushes, I am sure would prove delightful friends on a close acquaintance; they are very individual, not only in the extraordinary domed mud nests they build, but in all their ways, in their bright alertness; their interest in and curiosity about whatever goes on, their rather jerky quickness of movement, and their loud and varied calls.  With a little encouragement they become tame and familiar.  The parakeets were too noisy, but otherwise were most attractive little birds, as they flew to and fro and scrambled about in the top of the palm behind the house.  There was one showy kind of king-bird or tyrant flycatcher, lustrous black with a white head.

One afternoon several score cattle were driven into a big square corral near the house, in order to brand the calves and a number of unbranded yearlings and two-year-olds.  A special element of excitement was added by the presence of a dozen big bulls which were to be turned into draught-oxen.  The agility, nerve, and prowess of the ranch workmen, the herders or gauchos, were noteworthy.  The dark-skinned men were obviously mainly of Indian and negro descent, although some of them also showed a strong strain of white blood.  They wore the usual shirt, trousers, and fringed leather apron, with jim-crow hats.  Their bare feet must have been literally as tough as horn; for when one of them roped a big bull he