STRANGE BIRDS I43 



numbers only twenty-five miles away. Their 

 absence shows how very clean the lake is kept. 

 When the dynamiting crew of the Canal came 

 out to the island inlet and blew up old trees and 

 stumps so as to make a safe passageway for 

 motor boats, many fish were killed. Presently 

 the dead fish rose and floated on the surface of 

 the water and the vultures gathered in at once to 

 feed on them. How they knew that any dead 

 animal was there is a mystery to me. I could 

 not yet tell that the fish had begun to smell bad, 

 and the vulture's sense of smell is poorer than a 

 man's. 



In most Central American cities, where the 

 streets are not kept as clean as in Panama, 

 the vultures are very useful birds and are held 

 in great respect for their services in cleaning up 

 garbage that would decay, bring flies, and thus 

 cause illness. 



If we came down the inlet quietly we som.etimes 

 saw a little blue heron standing in the shallow 

 water. The young birds were white. Once we 

 saw three white ones, nearly as large as their 

 blue mother, standing together. These tall pale 

 birds were a sharp contrast to the dark green of 

 the jungle shore. • ^ 



I have seen a little green heron, the Louisiana 

 heron, and the great blue heron along the shore. 

 Perhaps these had migrated from the north, but 

 it may be that they only looked and behaved like 



