CREATURES OF DARKNESS 211 



all day had been only blank sand and swirling water. Then, 

 even as I watched, a number, disapproving of my presence, 

 dug themselves in again, sinking smoothly and evenly as though 

 let down by an invisible elevator. 



The coming of nightfall was the signal for the coming of 

 other nocturnal animals. The bushes and grasses began rustling 

 with the movements of the hermit crabs; whirring moths swept 

 past my ear and went on into the dark; beetles droned across 

 the glades and blundered into my hair; a few mosquitoes sang 

 busily, taking the places of the flies that had buzzed all day and 

 were then asleep on the under surfaces of leaves. Back in the 

 interior the low notes of a pair of night herons echoed across 

 the surface of the saltpond and faintly I could hear them splash- 

 ing in the shallows. High in the zenith the faint geese-like notes 

 of a flock of flamingos came filtering down; every evening after 

 dusk they circled the beach and then settled on the far side 

 of the lake back of the settlement. Here they spent the night 

 gabbling to each other; their tones were reminiscent of the 

 chatter of old ladies at a sewing circle. 



There were, however, few of the cheerful night noises of 

 home. Inagua has no frogs. There are no shrillings and liquid 

 callings of these joyous beings. There are no crickets, and no 

 hearths for them to sing upon. There is none of the vast chorus 

 of stridulating katydids such as fills any northern woods in 

 mid-summer. The Inagua night sounds are all mournful and 

 sad; or weird and plaintive. In some portions of the island, in 

 the barren savannahs and in some of the dried salinas, there is 

 only utter silence, unbroken except by the howl of the wind. 

 The great interior lake was an exception; there the air was 

 filled with a vast roar of screams and calls, with wails and com- 

 plaints; the tone of sadness was still present but it was fortissimo. 



Later in the evening, after I had deposited my newly found 

 lizard in a safe cage, I went dow^n to the rocks and sat for a 



