Just then, a stone cleverly thrown by the boy, struck the creature on the wing, but the blow did not disable it, and the jacamar ran off and disappeared in an instant.

“How clumsy I am!” cried Herbert.

“No, no, my boy!” replied the sailor.  “The blow was well aimed; many a one would have missed it altogether!  Come, don’t be vexed with yourself.  We shall catch it another day!”

As the hunters advanced, the trees were found to be more scattered, many being magnificent, but none bore eatable fruit.  Pencroft searched in vain for some of those precious palm-trees which are employed in so many ways in domestic life, and which have been found as far as the fortieth parallel in the Northern Hemisphere, and to the thirty-fifth only in the Southern Hemisphere.  But this forest was only composed of coniferae, such as deodaras, already recognized by Herbert, and Douglas pine, similar to those which grow on the northwest coast of America, and splendid firs, measuring a hundred and fifty feet in height.

At this moment a flock of birds, of a small size and pretty plumage, with long glancing tails, dispersed themselves among the branches strewing their feathers, which covered the ground as with fine down.  Herbert picked up a few of these feathers, and after having examined them,—­

“These are couroucous,” said he.

“I should prefer a moor-cock or guinea-fowl,” replied Pencroft, “still, if they are good to eat—­”

“They are good to eat, and also their flesh is very delicate,” replied Herbert.  “Besides, if I don’t mistake, it is easy to approach and kill them with a stick.”

The sailor and the lad, creeping among the grass, arrived at the foot of a tree, whose lower branches were covered with little birds.  The couroucous were waiting the passage of insects which served for their nourishment.  Their feathery feet could be seen clasping the slender twigs which supported them.

The hunters then rose, and using their sticks like scythes, they mowed down whole rows of these couroucous, who never thought of flying away, and stupidly allowed themselves to be knocked off.  A hundred were already heaped on the ground, before the others made up their minds to fly.

“Well,” said Pencroft, “here is game, which is quite within the reach of hunters like us.  We have only to put out our hands and take it!”

The sailor having strung the couroucous like larks on flexible twigs, they then continued their exploration.  The stream here made a bend towards the south, but this detour was probably not prolonged for the river must have its source in the mountain, and be supplied by the melting of the snow which covered the sides of the central cone.

The particular object of their expedition was, as has been said, to procure the greatest possible quantity of game for the inhabitants of the Chimneys.  It must be acknowledged that as yet this object had not been attained.  So the sailor actively pursued his researches, though he exclaimed, when some animal which he had not even time to recognize fled into the long grass, “If only we had had the dog Top!” But Top had disappeared at the same time as his master, and had probably perished with him.